LIBRARY 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
Class 


' 


Of   Fifty-five  Years   Old 

(From  the  Pedagogical  Seminary,  G.  Stanley  Hall,. 
Editor.} 

' 'Mr.  Bardeen  is  the  story  writer  of  American 
education.  He  has  already  written  three  books  of 
stories  of  New  York  schools,  and  here  prints  six 
short  ones.  To  our  mind  this  is  by  far  his  best  book. 
His  style  is  utterly  unpretentious  and  sometimes 
homely,  but  there  is  a  sense  of  reality  about  the  in- 
cidents he  portrays,  and  his  writings  embody  the  re- 
sults of  so  much  keen  observation  of  the  character 
and  psychic  processes  of  teachers  and  everything  is 
described  as  so  real  that  the  stories  are  most  impress- 
ive. At  the  crises  when^Paul  Pembroke's  fortunes 
are  changed  for  the  better,  when  he  protests  before 
a  large  commencement  audience  against  a  fraudulent 
diploma,  the  victory  of  Sears  over  the  Alpha  Upsi- 
lon  Society,  and  the  triumph  of  Miss  Trumbull,  are 
profoundly  moving.  In  the  story  of  the  haunted 
school-room  we  have  almost  a  contribution  to  hys- 
tero-neurosis,  while  in  Miss  Fothergill's  Protest  we 
have  a  character  of  a  pushing  but  unscrupulous 
girl  which  we  fear  is  too  true  to  life." 


AND  OTHER 


STORIES  ABOUT  SCHOOLS 


C.  \V.    BARDEEN 

Editor  of  The  School  Bulletin 


RACUSE,    N.  Y. 

C.  W.  BARDEEN,  PUBLISHER 
1904 


Copyright,  1904,  by  C.  W.  Bardeen 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

Roderick  Hume,  the  Story  of  a  New  York 
Teacher.  With  26  full-page  illustrations  by 
L.  A.  Shrimpton.  Cloth,  16:295,  $1.25. 

Commissioner  Hume,  a  Story  of  New 
York  Schools.  Cloth,  16:210,  $1.25. 

Fifty-five  Years  Old,  and  other  Stories 
about  Teachers.  Cloth,  16:216,  $1.00. 

The  Little  Old  Man,  or  the  School  for 
Illiberal  Mothers.  With  illustrations.  Cloth, 
16:31,  50  cts. 

Authors  Birthdays.  Three  series.  Illus- 
trations. Cloth,  16:320,  459,  367.  Each 
$1.00. 

Dictionary  of  Educational  Biography. 
With  400  portraits.  Cloth,  12:287,  $2.00. 

Teaching  as  a  Business.  Cloth,  16:154, 
$1.00. 


(4) 


These  stories  appeared  in  the  successive 
monthly  issues  of  The  School  Bulletin  from 
July  to  December,  1904.  Though  each  is 
complete  itself,  the  same  characters  reap- 
pear occasionally,  and  some  of  them  will  be 
remembered  by  readers  of  the  stories  in 
"  Fifty-five  Years  Old". 


(5) 


CONTENTS 

The  Woman  Trustee 9 

Without  Credentials 39 

Jot,  the  Janitor 75 

The  Masterful  Man 103 

On  a  Pedestal 141 

Miss  Dusinberrie's  Downfall..,  ...211 


(7) 


THE  WOMAN   TRUSTEE 


I 

"  This  is  the  place,"  said  Mrs.  Washburn, 
pausing  at  the  entrance  to  an  apartment 
house  and  nodding  at  a  bay  window  on  the 
first  floor. 

"  She  has  an  unconceited  little^  sign," 
remarked  Emily  Wells,  looking  at  the  plain 
gold  letters  on  a  narrow  black  board: 


ELIZABETH  LYNDON,  M.  D. 


"  I  hope  she  is  as  unconceited  "as  her 
sign,"  said  Miss  Ames,  "  but  I  doubt  it. 
These  professional  women  are  usually  up- 
pish." 

(9) 


10  THE  WOMAST  TRUSTEE 

"  Perhaps  you  misjudge  them,"  said  Mrs. 
Washburn  gently;  "  when  a  woman  has  to 
elbow  her  way  into  a  calling  hitherto  mo- 
nopolized by  men  she  sometimes  has  to  as- 
sume a  self-confidence  she  does  not  feel." 

The  modest  little  sign  had  not  attracted 
many  patients  in  Winchendon.  Dr.  Lyndon 
was  prepared  to  look  for  slow  and  small 
beginnings,  but  it  did  seem  as  if  in  six 
months  there  ought  to  have  been  more 
emergencies,  more  calls  upon  her  in  the 
temporary  absence  of  other  physicians.  So 
when  in  the  latter  part  of  July  the  bell 
rang  and  these  ladies  presented  themselves, 
she  hoped  the  call  was  professional.  She 
was  disappointed. 

"  Dr.  Lyndon,"  asked  Mrs.  Washburn, 
"  are  you  interested  in  woman  suffrage  ?  " 

She  wasn't.  She  had  found  so  many  em- 
barrassments and  humiliations  in  preparing 


THE  WOMAN  TKUSTEE  11 

herself  for  her  profession  that  her  feeling 
was  to  preserve  what  little  femininity  she  was 
still  credited  with,  and  leave  to  men  the 
monopoly  of  such  non-essentials  as  voting. 
But  Mrs.  Washburn's  kind,  motherly  face 
attracted  her,  and  she  felt  she  should  like 
to  know  her.  So  she  softened  her  natural 
response  into,  "  I  have  never  thought  much 
about  it." 

"  We  women  here,"  said  Mrs.  Washburn, 
after  introducing  herself  and  her  compan- 
ions, "  feel  especially  interested  in  school 
suffrage.  The  law  gives  women  in  villages 
like  this  the  right  to  vote  for  school  officers 
and  to  hold  office.  We  have  never  had  a 
woman  representative  on  the  board  of  edu- 
cation, and  we  are  starting  a  movement  to 
elect  a  woman  trustee  at  the  school  meeting 
next  month." 


12  THE  WOMAK  TRUSTEE 

"  What  are  your  plans  ?  "  asked  Dr. 
Lyndon. 

"  We  want  to  arouse  public  sentiment. 
We  have  prepared  a  petition  that  we  hope 
to  get  five  hundred  women  and  some  men 
to  sign,  calling  upon  the  voters  to  elect  a 
woman.  Then  we  mean  to  have  one  or  two 
mass  meetings,  with  distinguished  suffrage 
speakers  from  abroad." 

Dr.  Lyndon  reflected  a  moment.  "  Are 
you  sure  that  is  the  best  way  ?  "  she  asked. 
"  My  father  used  to  be  on  the  school  board 
at  home  and  I  saw  something  of  school  mat- 
ters. Very  few  voted  at  the  school  elec- 
tions there.  Do  you  know  how  many  votes 
were  cast  here  last  time  ?  " 

"  No,  I  don't;  probably  not  many;  peo- 
ple take  little  interest  in  school  elections. 
The  board  renominates  the  men  whose  time 


THE  WOMAK  TRUSTEE  13 

has  expired,  and  the  few  who  go  to  the  polls 
vote  for  these  men  the  next  day." 

"  Then  why  would  it  not  be  better  instead 
of  starting  this  open  movement  and  fore- 
warning the  men,  to  make  a  quiet  canvass 
just  before  the  meeting,  and  have  the  wo- 
men turn  out  unexpectedly  in  numbers 
sufficient  to  cast  a  majority  of  the  votes  ?  " 

"  A  capital  idea,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Wash- 
burn,  with  a  twinkle  in  her  eye; '"  I  do  so 
like  to  get  a  joke  on  the  men." 

The  four  women  at  once  became  allies 
and  the  details  of  the  campaign  were  ar- 
ranged. On  the  first  Wednesday  of  August 
two  hundred  women  were  invited  to  a 
sewing  circle  at  Mrs.  Washburn's,  not  far 
from  the  place  of  election.  An  hour  before 
the  polls  closed  these  women  filed  out,  and 
not  only  cast  their  own  votes,  but  by  occu- 
pying the  line  prevented  any  one  else  from 


14  THE  WOMAX  TKUSTEE 

voting.  Word  was  hastily  sent  to  some 
members  of  the  board,  but  the  president 
was  out  of  town,  and  nobody  seemed  to 
know  how  to  cope  with  the  emergency.  So 
the  women's  candidate  was  elected  two  to 
one. 

Much  to  Dr.  Lyndon's  surprise  and  some- 
what to  her  discomfiture,  when  the  printed 
ballots  had  been  brought  to  Mrs.  Wash- 
burn's  sewing  circle  they  bore  her  name, 
the  ladies  having  been  much,  impressed  not 
only  by  her  general  good  sense  but  by  her 
knowledge  of  school  law.  It  was  too  late 
to  protest  and  she  found  herself  a  member 
of  the  board  of  education. 
II 

In  planning  her  work  as  a  member  of  the 
board,  Dr.  Lyndon's  first  thought  was  to 
avoid  the  mistakes  that  a  woman  would 
be  expected  to  make.  For  instance,  she 


THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE  15 

had  not  had  much  experience  in  business 
on  a  large  scale;  in  such  matters  she  could 
be  for  a  long  time  only  a  learner.  In  fact 
she  meant  to  keep  way  in  the  background 
the  first  year  in  all  matters,  learning  all  she 
could,  but  realizing  that  she  was  not  quali- 
fied to  advise  with  these  men  of  long  ex- 
perience. 

At  the  first  meeting  she  was  treated  with 
profuse  courtesy.  This  she  hoped  to  over- 
come. She  had  never  had  time  or  inclina- 
tion for  sentiment,  but  she  had  known  and 
liked  some  fine  men,  and  been  admitted  to 
their  companionship  on  the  level;  the  com- 
pliment she  most  cherished  was  from  a  man 
classmate  of  hers  at  the  medical  school,  who 
had  said,  "  Miss  Lyndon,  you  are  a  mighty 
good  fellow."  She  meant  these  men  should 
find  her  a  fellow-member,  not  a  lady  visi- 
tor; but  of  course  that  would  take  time. 


16  THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE 

Judge  Fellows  was  re-elected  president, 
and  immediately  appointed  the  committees. 
He  placed  Dr.  Lyndon  on  the  teachers  and 
course  of  study  committees,  and  made  her 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  care  of  build- 
ings . 

"  What  are  the  duties  of  that  commit- 
tee ?  "  she  asked. 

"  To  see  that  the  janitor  keeps  house 
properly,"  replied  the  judge.  "  You  are 
doubly  fitted :  as  a  woman  to  look  after  the 
house-keeping,  and  as  a  physician  to  see 
that  the  conditions  are  sanitary." 

Dr.  Lyndon  bowed,  and  resolved  to  do 
that  work  well.  So  when  book  agents 
swarmed  around  her  she  listened  to  them 
and  took  their  books  and  promised  to  exam- 
ine them  and  did  examine  them,  but  in  com- 
mittee deferred  to  the  judgment  of  the  two 
experienced  members.  When  teachers  came 


THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE  17 

to  her  for  places,  she  heard  their  stories, 
astonished  they  should  offer  so  many  other 
reasons  for  appointment  besi%des  fitness,  but 
never  questioned  the  judgment  of  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  and  Judge  Fellows,  the  other  members, 
of  the  committee. 

But  the  schoolhouse  she  resolved  to  know 
better  than  anyone  else  knew  it.  She  bought 
all  attainable  books  on  school  architecture 
and  sanitation  and  hygiene.  She  became  a 
frequent  visitor,  and  after  a  little  a  welcome 
visitor.  At  first  the  teachers,  especially  the 
women  teachers,  were  suspicious  of  her, 
thinking  she  would  interefere  and  make 
herself  disagreeable.  But  she  soon  got  their 
confidence.  She  asked  questions  of  them 
deferently,  really  wanted  the  benefit  of 
their  experience,  and  where  changes  were 
necessary  made  them  as  far  as  possible 
through  them. 


18  THE  WOMA^  TRUSTEE 

One  of  the  first  things  that  troubled 
her  was  the  eyesight  of  pupils.  The  black- 
boards were  old  and  shiny,  and  at  different 
times  of  the  day  reflected  only  a  glare  to 
different  parts  of  the  room.  This  she 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  teachers, 
and  got  the  teachers  themselves  to  petition 
for  fresh  slating.  In  so  doing  she  made  the 
teachers  observant,  and  led  them  to  lessen 
the  amount  of  blackboard  work  to  be  read 
from  the  seats,  and  to  look  for  need  of 
glasses  among  the  children. 
Ill 

The  problem  of  ventilation  proved  the 
most  serious.  The  Winchendon  schoolhouse 
was  heated  by  an  enormous  single  furnace, 
sending  hot-air  pipes  all  over  the  building. 
There  were  one  or  more  so-called  ventilators 
in  each  room,  but  they  were  at  the  top  of  the 
rooms  and  if  opened  at  all  were  sup- 


THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE  19 

posed  only  to  carry  off  the  comparatively 
fresh  hot  air. 

Dr.  Lyndon  bought  a  series  of  Woulfe's 
bottles,  and  began  to  make  and  record  ob- 
servations. The  results  were  appalling; 
not  seldom  before  the  close  of  school  in  the 
afternoon  the  instrument  showed  3  to  4  per 
cent  of  carbonic  dioxide. 

Dr.  Lyndon  did  what  she  could  with  win- 
dow ventilation  without  endangering  the 
pupils  who  sat  near,  but  still  the  figures 
were  sickening.  She  began  to  study  the 
furnace  itself.  She  found  that  the  cold  air 
box  through  which  the  fresh  air  was  sup- 
posed to  come  in  to  be  warmed  and  distri- 
buted was  closed,  so  that  the  air  sent  up 
stairs  was  drawn  out  of  the  cellar.  She 
called  the  janitor  to  account.  He  was  a 
little  weazened  Irishman,  who  had  held  the 
place  from  time  immemorial,  and  who 


20  THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE 

looked  condescendingly  at  this  slip  of  a  girl 
who  was  interfering  through  ignorance. 

"  Why,  Miss  Lyndon,"  he  said — he  had 
frequently  remarked  that  he  wouldn't  never 
call  no  woman  doctor — "  if  you  open  that 
air  box  it  will  take  twice  the  coal.  That 
outside  air  eats  up  coal  powerful  fast." 

"  Never  mind,  Mr.  Donovan,"  she  said; 
"the  school  board  will  furnish  the  coal; 
don't  let  that  box  be  closed  again  except 
when  the  wind  is  from  the  east,  and  then 
only  partly." 

The  janitor  was  inclined  to  grumble,  but 
he  noticed  that  every  time  she  came  to  the 
school  she  looked  at  the  cold-air  box  first, 
so  he  thought  it  prudent  to  leave  it  open. 

But  still  the  ventilation  was  abominable. 
Sometimes  an  odor  came  up  through  the 
registers  that  was  much  more  than  carbonic 
dioxide — the  fetid  carbonic  oxide,  to  breathe 


THE  WOMAtf  TRUSTEE  21 

which  is  not  merely  absence  of  oxygen  but 
active  poison.  She  looked  into  the  matter 
and  found  that  this  occurred  when  large 
quantities  of  fresh  fuel  were  shovelled  at 
once  upon  the  hot  coals,  forming  a  blue 
flame  that  gave  out  quantities  of  this  gas. 
She  thoroughly  informed  herself  about  this, 
and  then  explained  to  the  janitor  why  he 
should  never  feed  the  furnace  in  this  way 
while  the  school  was  in  session,  but  instead 
put  on  the  fresh  coal  in  small  quantities. 

He  listened  with  growing  impatience. 
He  did  not  mind  the  coal  air  box  so  much; 
that  was  a  silly  notion  but  it  wasn't  much 
bother.  But  to  put  on  only  a  shovel  or  two 
full  of  coal  at  a  time  meant  a  good  deal  of 
extra  work,  and  he  was  by  no  means  in- 
clined to  comply.  He  tried  to  argue  the 
matter;  failing  there  he  simply  refused. 

Dr.    Lyndon  was  astonished.     Her  com- 


22  THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE 

mittee  had  practical  charge  of  hiring  and 
discharging  the  janitor,  and  she  was  prac- 
tically the  committee.  That  he  should  ven- 
ture upon  rebellion  was  inconceivable.  She 
said  as  much  to  him. 

He  looked  at  her  disdainfully.  "  Why 
you  crowing  hen,"  he  exclaimed,  "  I  was 
janitor  of  this  building  long  before  you 
were  born,  and  I  shall  be  janitor  of  it  long 
after  Winchendon  has  forgot  the  dirty  trick 
by  which  you  got  yourself  elected  on  the 
board  for  one  short  term." 

The  man  was  not  even  drunk;  he  was 
simply  giving  vent  to  the  pent-up  wrath 
that  had  been  accumulating  ever  since  Dr. 
Lyndon  began  to  inspect  his  work. 

She  understood  that  she  had  power 'to 
discharge  him;  but  not  to  be  precipitate 
she  consulted  the  other  two  members  of  the 
committee.  She  went  first  to  the  Eeverend 


THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE  23 

Mr.  Kennedy,  a  ponderous,  solemn  man, 
rector  of  a  little  Episcopal  church  on  the 
outskirts.  He  listened  impassively,  and 
when  she  had  finished  her  story  said  as  if 
delivering  a  pope's  opinion  ex  cathedra, 
66  You  are  unquestionably  right.  I  shall 
support  you  in  the  committee  and  on  the 
board." 

The  other  member,  Mr.  Tucker,  a  fat 
little  grocer,  was  more  demonstrative.  She 
found  him  tying  up  packages  for  the  deliv- 
ery wagon,  and  when  she  repeated  the  jani- 
tor's language  he  was  furious.  "  I  wish  I 
had  been  there,"  he  said,  pounding  down 
on  the  counter  so  hard  that  his  fist  broke 
open  a  package  of  loaf  sugar;  "  I  would 
have  kicked  him  out  of  the  building." 

Dr.  Lyndon  smiled  within;  Mr.  Tucker's 
figure  did  not  really  fit  him  to  kick  even  so 
small  a  man  as  the  janitor;  still  she  appre- 


24  THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE 

ciated  his  sympathy  and  his  warm  support. 

As  it  happened  there  was  a  special  board- 
meeting  that  night,  and  she  reported  to  the 
full  board.  There  was  no  dissenting  voice, 
the  only  regret  expressed  being  on  the  part 
of  two  other  men  who,  like  Mr.  Tucker, 
wished  they  had  been  there  to  hear  him  use 
such  language  to  her ;  he  would  have  learned 
&  lesson.  She  was  assured  that  she  had 
full  authority  to  discharge  the  man  and  hire 
another  in  his  place,  and  was  blamed  as  too 
lenient  when  she  expressed  her  purpose  of 
giving  Donovan  a  fortnight's  notice. 
IV 

The  regular  meeting  occurred  the  next 
week,  and  when  reports  of  committees  were 
-called  for  she  stated  that  she  had  discharged 
Donovan  and  hired  in  his  place  a  man  who 
had  been  janitor  of  an  apartment  house  in 
Pepperell,  who  understood  heating  and  ven- 


THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE  25 

tilating  thoroughly,  and  who  had  excellent 
references  which  she  had  verified  for  sobri- 
ety, faithfulness,  and  good  character. 

The  report  was  received  and  placed  on 
file,  and  the  business  of  the  meeting  pro- 
ceeded. Dr.  Lyndon  felt  that  she  had  man- 
aged the  matter  well,  in  fact  in  a  way  credi- 
table to  her  sex;  she  did  not  see  how  any 
man  on  the  board  could  have  been  more 
moderate  or  careful  or  successful. 

Her  mind  was  rather  upon  this  than  upon 
the  routine  work  of  the  evening,  and  when 
the  president  asked  if  there  were  any  com- 
munications she  paid  little  attention  to  the 
statement  of  the  clerk  that  there  was  one 
from  the  Trades  Assembly.  The  president 
asked  that  it  be  presented,  and  the  clerk 
read  as  follows: 

"  Whereas,  Michael  Donovan  has  been 
janitor  of  the  union  school  building  for 


26    .  THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE 

more  than  twenty-eight  years,  and  is  a  re- 
spectable citizen  and  member  of  the  com- 
munity, and  likewise  belongs  to  the  Trades 
Assembly;  and, 

"  Whereas,  a  certain  female  elected  by 
trickery  to  the  board  of  education  has  in- 
terfered with  said  Michael  Donovan's  pre- 
rogatives, and  shown  herself  an  ignorant 
and  mischief- making  meddler;  and, 

"  Whereas,  when  in  performance  of  his 
loyal  duties  to  the  school  and  to  the  com- 
munity said  Michael  Donovan  refused  to 
make  changes  in  his  care  of  the  furnace 
which  would  have  prevented  the  proper 
heating  of  the  building  and  entailed  great 
cost  of  additional  coal  upon  the  tax-paying 
community,  said  female  member  of  the 
board  did  thereupon  assume  to  discharge 
said  Michael  Donovan  from  the  position  he 
has  so  long  and  so'  honorably  held,  and  at 


THE  WOMAK  TRUSTEE  27 

such  great  benefit  to  the  community,  which 
does  not  care  to  be  experimented  upon  by 
persons  who  have  unsexed  themselves  and 
entered  upon  professions  and  civil  offices 
that  belong  to  the  stronger  sex;  therefore, 

"  Resolved,  that  the  Trades  Assembly 
and  all  the  allied  unions  of  the  village  of 
Winchendon  do  hereby  protest  against  this 
assumption  of  arbitrary  authority  on  the 
part  of  this  female  member  of  the  board; 
and, 

"  Resolved,  that  we  call  upon  the  other 
members  of  the  board  to  vindicate  the 
rights  of  labor  and  restore  said  Michael 
Donovan  without  delay." 

Dr.  Lyndon  was  very  much  amused  as 
the  reading  proceeded,  and  looked  for  a 
burst  of  merriment  when  it  was  concluded. 

But  the  other  members  seemed  grave. 
After  some  silence,  during  which  Dr.  Lyn- 


28  THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE 

don  looked  in  perplexity  from  one  face  to 
another,  Judge  Fellows  asked : 

"  What  do  you  say  to  these  resolutions, 
Dr.  Lyndon  ?  " 

"  Why,  they  seem  more  like  opera  bouffe 
than  sober  earnest.  It  hardly  seems  possi- 
ble that  intelligent  men  could  have  written 
them  or  passed  them." 

"  But  they  are  signed  by  every  union  in 
Winchendon,"  said  Mr.  Burbank. 

"  It  is  a  pity  the  unions  are  not  more  in- 
telligently officered,"  she  replied. 

"  It  seems  this  Donovan  is  a  high-up  offi- 
cer in  the  Trades  Assembly,"  continued  Mr. 
Burbank. 

"  I  hope  he  does  his  work  there  better 
than  in  the  schoolhouse,"  she  said. 

"  You  don't  realize  the  situation,  Dr. 
Lyndon,"  said  Judge  Fellows.  "  Our  char- 
ter election  comes  next  month.  We  nave 


THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE  29 

so  large  a  foreign  population  that  the  yote  is 
nearly  equal  between  the  two  parties.  This 
board  of  education  is  republican.  Unless 
we  accede  to  this  request  the  democrats  will 
carry  the  March  election,  and  it  may  be 
years  before  we  get  control  again." 

"  I  don't  understand,"  replied  Dr.  Lyn- 
don. "  How  can  we  be  a  republican  board 
of  education  ?  A  majority  may  vote  the 
republican  ticket  on  national  issues,  but 
there  are  no  national  issues  here.  All  we 
are  concerned  for  is  to  provide  the  best 
school  we  can  for  the  money  given  us  to 
spend." 

"  You  can't  dissociate  elections  like 
that,"  said  Judge  Fellows,  indulgently. 
"  Elections  are  carried  by  organization,  and 
though  the  issues  are  different  in  national 
and  state  and  local  elections,the  organization 
has  to  be  depended  upon  to  secure  the  desired 


30  THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE 

results.  Now  it  would  never  do  for  the  or- 
ganization to  fly  in  the  face  of  the  Trades 
Assembly;  that  controls  too  many  votes." 

"  But  you  don't  mean  to'say  you  propose 
to  rescind  your  action  in  this  janitor  mat- 
ter ?"  she  asked. 

"  Why,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Dr.  Lyndon, 
the  board  has  not  taken  action  on  that  mat- 
ter," said  Mr.  Tucker. 

"  At  the  meeting  last  week  you  every 
one  agreed  that  our  committee  was  to  dis- 
charge him,"  she  said. 

"  But  that  was  only  the  expression  of 
individual  opinion;  there  was  no  formal  ac- 
tion by  the  board  as  a  whole,"  said  Mr. 
Burbank. 

"  In  other  words,  you  gentlemen  simply 
made  promises  to  a  woman,  and  you  do  not 
consider  yourselves  bound,"  she  exclaimed 
indignantly. 


THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE  31 

"  You  ought  to  be  reasonable,  Dr.  Lyn- 
don," said  the  judge  wincing.  "  We  have 
tried  to  be  courteous  to  you,  and  to  treat 
you  not  only  as  a  lady  but  as  a  valued  fel- 
low member.  But  we  all  of  us  have  to 
change  our  views  and  our  plans  as  exigen- 
cies arise.  We  did  not  know  that  this  man 
Donovan  was  high  up  in  labor  circles,  or 
suspect  that  he  would  go  stirring  up  these 
unions  till  he  had  all  organized  labor  en- 
listed in  his  behalf.  These  facts  make  new 
conditions,  and  we  have  to  consider  the  ques- 
tion from  a  different  point  of  view." 

"  The  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of 
Gawd,"  said  Mr.  Kennedy,  in  solemn  tones. 

"  I  think  I  understand,  "  said  Dr.  Lyn- 
don scornfully.  "  I  suppose  when  you 
gentlemen  were  boys  if  you  were  walking 
with  a  girl  and  a  little  boy  insulted  her  you 
would  fight  him,  but  if  a  big  brother  of  his 


32  THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE 

appeared  you  would  apologize  and  run 
away." 

"  It  seems  hardly  worth  while  to  continue 
the  discussion,"  said  the  judge;  "  we  see 
as  you  do  not  the  requirements  of  practical 
politics,  and  we  must  protect  the  higher 
interests  of  our  organization.  No  doubt 
this  man  ought  to  be  dismissed,  but  the 
school  has  got  on  with  him  twenty-eight 
years  without  going  to  destruction,  and  his 
discharge  at  just  this  juncture  would  do 
more  harm  in  putting  control  of  the  village 
into  the  hands  of  unscrupulous  men  than  it 
would  do  good  to  the  school." 

Dr.  Lyndon  flushed  and  started  to  speak 
impulsively,  but  with  effort  restrained  her- 
self. Then  she  said  calmly  but  with  dry 
throat,  "  May  I  ask  for  formal  action  on  my 
report?" 

A  vote  was  taken  and  the  eight  men  voted 


THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE  33 

not  to  adopt  the  report.  Then  Dr.  Lyndon 
rose  and  spoke,  again  with  difficulty  to  keep 
her  throat  moist.  "  Gentlemen,  I  came  upon 
this  board  much  to  my  surprise  and  with 
many  misgivings.  I  found  the  work  unex- 
pectedly pleasant.  You  treated  me  courte- 
ously, you  assigned  me  a  kind  of  work  I  had 
fitted  myself  for,  and  I  felt  that  I  was  mak- 
ing myself  useful.  It  seemed  to  me  that  I 
had  formed  a  pleasant  acquaintance  with 
you  gentlemen,  and  I  felt  it  a  privilege  to 
be  associated  with  you  and  to  see  your 
methods  of  disposing  of  business.  But  this 
evening's  action  shows  me  that  it  will  be 
quite  impossible  for  me  to  work  with  you 
further,  and  I  hereby  resign  my  member- 
ship; and  as  I  see  how  little  acquaintance 
I  really  had  with  you,  I  shall  ask  that  it  be 
understood  we  have  no  acquaintance  at  all. 
Good  evening,  gentlemen." 


34  THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE 

She  was  as  good  as  her  word.  Thereafter 
when  she  passed  any  member  of  the  board 
upon  the  street  she  looked  him  as  full  in 
the  eye  as  she  would  any  stranger,  and  be- 
trayed no  recognition  of  any  attempt  on 
his  part  to  bow.  At  an  evening  function 
where  the  hostess  lacked  tact  to  see  that 
she  and  Judge  Fellows  were  avoiding  an  en- 
counter and  insisted  on  thrusting  them 
against  each  other,  remarking,  "  Surely, 
Judge  Fellows,  you  must  be  acquainted  with 
Dr.  Lyndon,"  the  latter  replied,  "  Judge 
Fellows  and  I  know  each  other,  but  we  are 
not  acquainted,"  and  turned  away. 

"  Well,  of  all  the  impudence,"  the  host- 
ess started  to  say,  but  Judge  Fellows  inter- 
rupted her.  "  Dr.  Lyndon  is  quite  justi- 
fied," he  said  gravely;  "  our  board  of  edu- 
cation treated  her  shabbily." 

She  built  up  something  of  a  practice  in 


THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE  35 

Winchendon,  being  especially  successful  in 
dealing  with  children's  diseases.  One  night 
as  she  was  about  to  retire  there  was  a  wild 
ring  at  her  bell.  She  found  Mr.  Tucker 
there.  "  Agnes — diphtheria — dying,"  he 
panted,  agonizingly. 

Before  the  last  word  was  uttered  she  had 
seized  her  case  of  instruments,  and  she  made 
her  way  to  the  house  so  rapidly  that  the 
anxious  father  could  hardly  keep  up  with 
her.  She  found  the  child  gasping,  she  saw 
that  heroic  treatment  was  necessary,  and 
she  administered  it  unflinchingly.  It  was 
a  narrow  shave,  but  breathing  was  restored, 
and  she  said  to  the  mother  "  There  is 
hope."  She  sat  by  the  bedside  till  seven 
in  the  morning,  and  then  she  said,  "  Your 
child  is  out  of  danger;  with  ordinary  care 
she  will  recover." 

She  still  ignored  the  father,   she  never 


36  THE  WOMAN  TRUSTEE 

again  entered  the  house;  when  he  sent  her 
a  check  for  a  hundred  dollars  she  simply 
burned  it,  not  even  returning  it.  But  the 
mother  and  she  became  close  friends,  and 
little  Agnes  is  to-day  her  most  frequent  and 
most  privileged  caller. 

Dr.  Lyndon  is  well  thought  of  in  Winch- 
endon.  Few  remember  that  she  was  once 
on  the  board  of  education,  and  when  it  is 
mentioned  her  friends  say,  "  0  well,  what 
could  you  expect  ?  That  is  no  sort  of  work 
for  a  woman."  Michael  Donovan  is  still 
janitor.  He  has  closed  up  the  cold-air  box, 
and  he  shovels  on  coal  as  he  pleases.  Judge 
Fellows  has  admitted  more  than  once  that 
nothing  else  has  occurred  in  the  board 
which  gives  him  as  much  chagrin  in  the 
remembrance  as  its  treatment  of  Dr.  Lyn- 
don. But  the  republicans  still  carry  the 
village  elections. 


WITHOUT  CREDENTIALS 


WITHOUT  CREDENTIALS 


I 

"  Hello.  Yes.  Absolutely  out  of  the 
question;  why  the  term  has  only  just  be- 
gun. Well,  what  of  it?  Suppose  we 
should  go  to  him  and  say  we  have  found  a 
man  who  can  teach  fifty  per  cent  better 
than  he  for  the  same  money,  and  ask  him 
to  let  us  off  from  our  contract.  No,  I  tell 
you,  Burbank,  it  isn't  right;  when  people 
make  contracts  they  should  live  up  to  them. 
Besides,  this  would  leave  the  school  in  the 
lurch. 

"  Do  you  know  anything  about  him  ? 
Why  the  idea  of  putting  in  a  man  we  know 

nothing    about.     You're     wild,     Burbank. 

(39) 


40  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

It's  all  well  enough  to  want  to  favor  this 
young  fellow,  but  we  must  consider  the 
school  first.  0  I'll  see  him,  of  course,  but 
it's  no  use;  things  are  going  all  right  at 
the  school  now,  and  and  I'm  not  going  to 
swap  horses  crossing  a  stream,  especially 
when  I  don't  know  the  other  horse." 

Judge  Fellows  threw  back  the  receiver  of 
the  telephone  with  an  emphasis  that  showed 
his  annoyance.  Shortly  after  there  was  a 
knock  at  his  office  door,  and  he  called, 
"Come  in." 

"  Mr.  Burbank  sent  me  over  to  see  you 
about  the  possible  vacancy  in  your  school," 
the  visitor  said. 

The  judge  was  astonished.  Winchendon 
did  not  pay  high  salaries,  and  for  principal 
it  usually  chose  between  young  fellows  of 
some  ability  and  little  experience,  and  men 
of  some  experience  and  little  ability,  in 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  41 

either  case  crude  and  with  pedagogue  writ- 
ten all  over  them.  But  this  man,  Mr. Bruce 
as  he  introduced  himself,  was  a  man  of  the 
world,  well  dressed,  well  groomed,  well 
mannered,  such  a  man  as  the  judge  would 
expect  to  meet  at  an  exclusive  club  in  Bos- 
ton or  New  York.  His  surprise  was  so 
manifest  that  Mr.  Bruce  went  on  easily: 

"  You  are  naturally  astonished  at  my  look- 
ing for  a  twelve-hundred  dollar  place.  You 
are  quite  right;  I  am  not  a  twelve-hundred 
dollar  man.  The  last  salary  I  received  as 
a  teacher  was  twenty-three  hundred,  as 
principal  of  the  high  school  in  Elizabeth, 
Montana.  Because  I  taught  school  pretty 
well,  some  people  thought  I  was  well  adapted 
for  a  business  man.  I  thought  so,  too.  The 
mistake  has  cost  me  five  years  and  all  my 
savings.  Now  I  am  going  back  to  what  I 


42  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

know  I  can  do,  and  of  course  I  must  begin 
with  what  offers." 

It  was  said  frankly  and  modestly,  and 
made  a  favorable  impression  on  the  judge. 
"  What  was  the  business  you  went  into  ?  " 
he  asked. 

Mr.  Bruce  smiled  ruefully.  u  It  will  be 
an  old  story  to  you,"  he  said;  "  the  courts 
are  full  of  such  cases;  but  even  we  who 
read  the  newspapers  get  taken  in,  now  and 
then. 

"  We  Montana  people  usually  put  our 
savings  into  mines.  I  ran  across  a  new 
mine,  one  vacation,  that  seemed  to  me 
promising,  and  I  began  to  invest  in  that. 
It  paid  well  and  I  put  in  more;  I  got  some 
of  my  friends  to  put  in  money;  I  became 
rather  useful  to  them,  in  a  small  way. 
;  J4  One  June,  just  before  school  was  out, 
one  of  the  original  owners  visited  me.  He 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  43 

said  he  and  his  partner  were  plain  miners, 
with  no  education,  no  acquaintance  with 
people,  no  gift  of  gab.  They  wanted  to  raise 
some'money  so  as  to  have  their  own  stamp- 
ing mills  and  save  the  heavy  freight  to  Butte. 
If  I  would  come  up  to  the  mine  and  make 
myself  thoroughly  sure  the  proposition  was 
a  good  one,  they  would  pay  me  double  my 
present  salary  to  go  east  and  raise  capital. 

"  It  looked  all  right;  it  was  all  right;  the 
men  were  straight  and  their  mine  was  a 
good  one.  I  went  east  for  them  and  I  raised 
a  lot  of  money,  the  stamping  mills  were  put 
up,  and  the  mine  did  well.  My  expenses 
were  paid,  I  was  not  using  much  of  my  own 
money,  and  I  kept  investing  everything  in 
the  mine. 

"  It  got  to  be  too  good  a  thing.  One  of 
the  men  whom  I  interested  in  the  mine 
went  out  to  examine  it  and  bought  out  the 


44  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

interest  of  the  original  owners,  thus  getting 
a  majority  of  the  stock.  Then  he  formed 
a  new  company  with  inflated  capital,  paid 
enormous  salaries  to  a  few  officers,  and  neg- 
lected the  mine  so  as  to  freeze  out  the  other 
stockholders.  Dividends  stopped,  and  as- 
sessments took  their  place.  I  protested, 
but  in  vain,  and  finally  last  Monday  I  told 
the  new  president  what  I  thought  of  him 
and  his  proceedings. 

"  He  laughed  in  my  face,  proved  to  me 
that  everything  he  had  done  was  within  the 
law,  and  swore  that  if  I  took  the  matter 
into  the  newspapers  he  would  sue  me  for 
libel,  and  ruin  me  financially,  whether  he 
won  the  case  or  not.  For  that  matter  I 
was  ruined  financially  anyway,  for  I  have 
been  unable  to  pay  the  assessments  on  my 
stock  and  have  lost  it.  Of  course  I  threw 
up  my  place,  and  I  resolved  to  get  back 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  45 

among  honest  men  and  into  honest  business 
without  delay.  I  saw  in  the  Tribune  that 
your  principal  had  been  offered  the  place  in 
the  boys  high  school,  and  I  came  on  at  once, 
thinking  there  might  be  a  chance  to  earn  at 
least  my  bread  and  butter." 

"  Are  you  married?"  asked  the  judge. 

"  There  you  strike  a  tender  spot,"  said 
Mr.  Bruce,  sadly.  "  My  wife  and  my  little 
boy  that  never  made  a  sound  are  buried  in 
one  grave." 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  the  judge 
hastily;  "  of  course  I  did  not  know." 

He  liked  this  man.  The  mining  experi- 
ence was  a  common  one;  he  knew  as  few 
lawyers  did  how  helpless  the  small  stock- 
holder is  in  the  hands  of  the  "  kings  of 
finance  ".  That  he  was  ready  to  start  again 
so  humbly  and  so  cheerfully  was  much  in 
his  favor. 


46  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

Just  then  Mr.  Burbank  came  in.  "I  say, 
judge,"  he  began,  "  I  don't  see  how  we  can 
stand  in  young  Farnsworth's  way.  The  one 
thing  he  has  fitted  himself  for  is  to  teach 
mathematics  in  a  secondary  school,  and 
now  comes  this  opening  in  the  boys  high 
school,  Brooklyn,  at  two  thousand  dollars. 
It  probably  won't  come  to  him  again  in  a 
life-time.  And  honestly  I  believe  we  shall 
gain  by  the  change  if  we  take  Mr.  Bruce." 

The  judge  was  willing  to  be  convinced. 
"  Have  you  credentials  ?  "  he  asked  Mr. 
Bruce. 

"  If  you  mean  testimonials,"  was  the 
reply,  "  I  never  had  one  in  my  life.  You 
see  the  principal  of  the  normal  school  sent 
me  the  day  I  graduated  to  Red  Bow,  Mon- 
tana; I  staid  there  two  years,  and  the  board 
at  Long  Sweep  elected  me  without  my  mak- 
ing an  application.  Then  the  Elizabeth  su- 


WITEiOUT   CREDENTIALS  47 

perintendeut  visited  my  school  and  offered 
me  the  principalship  of  a  ward  school  there, 
from  which  I  was  promoted  to  the  high 
school.  I  have  never  before  had  to  ask  for 
a  place,  so  of  course  I  have  never  needed 
testimonials,  and  I  have  none.  Bat  I  can 
give  you  plenty  of  references.  I  might  refer 
you  to  the  president  of  the  mining  com- 
pany," he  said,  with  an  amused  twinkle  in 
his  eye.  "  Honestly,  I  should  rather  like  to 
have  you  write  to  him ;  I  should  like  to  see 
how  he  would  express  himself.  If  he  had 
written  it  right  after  our  interview  the  paper 
would  have  caught  fire  from  the  ink. 

"  I'll  tell  you,  gentlemen,"  he  continued 
more  seriously,  "  suppose  you  write  to  the 
present  superintendent  at  Elizabeth,  John 
H.  Squires.  He  was  not  there  when  I  was, 
but  he  knows  of  my  work.  And  Henry 
Ames,  a  banker  there,  is  probably  still  on 


48  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

the  board.  He  knows  me  very  well.  Or 
better  still — you  don't  want  to  wait  a  week 
to  get  replies — telegraph  them  at  my  ex- 
pense; "  and  Mr.  Bruce  took  out  a  twenty- 
dollar  bill  and  laid  it  on  the  judge's  desk. 

The  judge  and  Mr.  Burbank  looked  at 
each  other  and  nodded.  "  We  won't  put 
you  to  that  outlay,"  the  judge  said,  hand- 
ing him  back  the  bill.  "  Mr.  Burbank  will 
Write  to  these  men,  and  in  the  mean  time 
we  will  take  you  on  trust.  You  can  begin 
to-morrow  morning." 

The  judge  wrote  out  the  names  and 
handed  the  paper  to  Mr.  Burbank,  who  put 
it  in  his  waistcoat  pocket. 

"  I  thank  you,  gentlemen,"  said  Mr. 
Bruce  simply;  "  I  will  try  not  to  disap- 
point you." 

II 

Mr.    Bruce    did    not   disappoint    them. 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  49 

Never  did  man  get  complete  control  of 
a  school  in  shorter  time.  He  had  spent  the 
remainder  of  the  day  in  the  building,  pick- 
ing up  all  the  points  he  could  from  the 
present  principal,  and  becoming  acquainted 
with  the  other  teachers  and  some  of  the 
pupils,  so  that  he  began  work  with  much 
already  accomplished.  His  presence  con- 
vinced the  boys  from  the  start  that  he  was 
probably  master  of  the  situation,  but  some 
of  the  boldest  thought  it  would  be  unworthy 
of  them  to  yield  without  experiment. 

While  he  was  hearing  a  class  in  arithme- 
tic at  the  blackboard,  the  first  hour,  a  spit- 
ball  flew  past  his  head  and  spread  itself  out 
on  the  glass  over  a  portrait  of  Lincoln. 
Apparently  he  did  not  notice  it,  and  the 
boy  was  just  about  to  blow  another  when, 
the  class  having  been  dismissed,  Mr.  Bruce 
said,  as  if  he  were  asking  what  time  it  was, 


50  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

"  Jones,  will  you  bring  that  blow-gun 
here?" 

Jones  came  forward  in  a  shame-faced  way, 
astonished  that  Mr.  Bruce  should  have 
known  not  only  that  he  blew  the  spit-ball 
but  what  his  name  was.  Mr.  Bruce  took 
the  blow-pipe  and  examined  it  curiously. 
"  That's  a  very  well-made  one,"  he  said, 
critically;  "  where  do  you  get  them?  at  the 
tin-shop?" 

"  Yes,  sir,"  replied  the  boy. 

"  What  do  you  have  to  pay  for  them  ?  " 

"  Five  cents." 

"  The  man  must  make  a  good  many  of 
them  to  sell  as  good  a  one  as  that  for  five 
cents.  How  many  do  you  suppose  there 
are  in  the  school  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,  sir;  a  good  many." 

"  They  are  much  better  than  we  used  to 
have  when  I  was  a  boy.  Then  we  had  to 


WITHOUT    CREDENTIALS  51 

make  them  out  of  willow  bark,  the  same  as 
we  used  for  whistles.  I  suppose  boys  have 
always  used  blow-guns  in  school.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  some  of  those  picture  scenes 
at  Herculaneum  and  on  the  walls  of  the 
kings  tombs  in  Egypt  show  schoolboys 
blowing  spit-balls  or  something  similar  when 
the  teacher  is  not  looking.  But  of  course 
that  sort  of  thing  is  done  only  to  experi- 
ment on  inexperienced  teachers.  You  won't 
need  to  try  it  again  on  me  because  I  am  not 
an  inexperienced  teacher.  The  spit-ball 
does  not  ornament  the  portrait  of  Lincoln, 
does  it  ?  You  will  see  that  it  is  washed  off 
.  at  recess  and  the  glass  carefully  polished, 
won't  you  ?  Thank  you.  Here  is  your 
blow-gun.  Don't  bring  it  to  school  again, 
please,  and  suggest  to  the  other  boys  that 
they  leave  theirs  at  home." 

This    is    substantially   what   Mr.    Bruce 


52  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

said,  but  in  type  it  gives  no  appreciation  of 
the  way  he  said  it,  in  perfectly  friendly 
tone  and  with  only  the  suggestion  of  disap- 
proval, and  yet  with  such  a  manifest  knowl- 
edge of  boys  and  boys'  ways  that  the  con- 
viction at  once  spread  over  the  school  it 
would  be  of  no  use  to  try  to  deceive  him. 

In  recitation  too  he  seized  an  early  op- 
portunity to  establish  the  right  relations. 
In  a  large  geography  class  a  girl  who  was 
called  up  among  the  last  floundered  so  hope- 
lessly that  it  was  manifest  she  had  made  no 
preparation.  He  kept  her  upon  her  feet 
till  she  became  embarrassed  and  then  asked y 
"  You  came  in  without  looking  at  the  lesson 
to-day,  didn't  you,  Miss  Snow  ?  " 

"  Yes,  Mr.  Bruce,"  she  said,  blushing. 

"  And  if  you  had  not  been  called  upon 
you  would  have  kept  it  secret  that  you  were 
not  prepared  ?  " 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  53 

"  Why,  of  course." 

"  Now  really  neither  you  nor  I  can  afford 
that.  If  the  recitation  is  to  be  given  up 
to  detecting  who  have  not  learned  their 
lessons  there  will  be  no  time  for  anything 
else,  and  it  seems  to  me  we  can  use  the 
hour  much  more  profitably.  Let  us  have 
an  agreement  now  that  whenever  any  one  of 
you  for  any  reason  is  not  prepared,  you  will 
come  to  me  before  recitation  and  say  so. 
The  reason  may  be  good  and  may  not  be, 
but  at  least  we  shall  be  frank  and  open 
with  one  another,  and  then  we  can  give  all 
our  energy  to  making  the  recitation  as  pro- 
fitable as  possible." 

Mr.  Bruce  was  as  good  as  his  word;  the 
recitations  were  very  profitable;  it  might 
fairly  be  said  that  the  pupils  usually  heard 
the  bell  for  changing  classes  with  regret. 
It  was  not  that  he  poured  out  information 


54  WITHOUT   CEEDEKTIALS 

upon  them,  though  he  abounded  in  illus- 
trations and  experiences  that  were  always 
interesting;  but  the  especial  charm  was  the 
way  he  correlated  the  lesson  with  their  own 
experiences,  till  in  what  had  seemed  to  them 
abstract  and  dry  he  would  sometimes  have 
half  the  class  shaking  their  arms  in  air, 
eager  to  tell  what  they  had  done  or  thought. 
Mr.  Bruce  was  never  hurried;  if  a  line 
of  thought  was  proving  profitable  he  gave 
the  whole  recitation  hour  to  it,  without 
regard  to  the  rest  of  the  lesson;  and  al- 
most always  the  pupils  went  home  from 
school  thinking.  The  village  library  soon 
felt  the  influence.  Instead  of  drawing 
now  and  then  a  story-book,  the  scholars 
spent  hours  over  reference  books,  and  were 
continually  calling  for  works  on  science  and 
biography  and  history.  The  discussions 
reached  the  dinner-table,  and  parents  who 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  55 

met  Mr.  Bruce  on  the  street  would  com- 
plain whimsically  but  with  manifest  pride 
that  their  children  left  them  no  peace,  but 
wanted  to  know  everything  that  was  in  the 
heavens  above  or  the  earth  beneath  or  the 
waters  under  the  earth. 

But  Mr.  Bruce  was  more  than  an  instruc- 
tor; he  was  continually  studying  his  boys 
and  girls  ana  giving  them  unobtrusively 
little  suggestions  that  were  of  inestimable 
value.  If  a  girl  was  inclined  to  stoop,  as 
so  many  growing  girls  are,  he  would  find  a 
time  when  she  happened  to  be  sitting  erect 
and  tell  her  how  much  difference  it  made  in 
her  appearance;  in  fact,  that  the  French, 
who  study  appearance,  ask,  not  how  do  you 
do,  but  how  do  you  carry  yourself,  as  if 
that  were  the  whole  matter. 

To  another,  inclined  to  be  hoydenish  and 
familiar  with  the  boys,  he  told  of  two  girls 


56  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

who  met  after  a  party  in  the  dressing-room 
and  congratulated  each  other  that  they  were 
the  only  girls  there  who  had  not  been  han- 
dled; and  he  pointed  out  how  one  could  be 
easy  and  unaffected  and  yet  feel  it  was  un- 
dignified to  be  pulled  and  hauled  about  by 
boys. 

"  I  saw  your  mother's  picture  when  I  was 
at  your  house  the  other  night,"  he  said; 
"  she  must  have  been  a  lovely  woman.  I 
can  hardly  imagine  her  when  she  was  almost 
grown  up  letting  half  the  boys  in  school  put 
their  hands  on  her  familiarly  and  call  her 
Mayme.  You  are  worthy  of  better  things, 
Mary." 

It  was  not  that  he  preached  at  his  pupils, 
or  interfered  unnecessarily,  or  nagged.  He 
never  offered  a  criticism  without  manifest 
reluctance  and  what  the  pupil  felt  to  be 
sufficient  reason.  He  was  helped  to  speak 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  57 

successfully  because  he  saw  so  much  of  the 
pupils  at  their  homes.  He  had  quite  the 
way  of  calling  about,  and  his  landlady  com- 
plained that  he  hardly  ever  took  tea  with 
her.  He  was  an  interesting  guest  because 
he  liked  to  talk  with  parents  about  their 
children,  he  showed  parents  that  he  knew 
their  children,  their  weak  points  and  their 
strong;  and  that  he  was  doing  his  best  not 
only  for  the  school  but  for  Henry  and  Fan- 
ny individually. 

Besides,  he  was  a  pleasant  man  in  society. 
In  his  manner  toward  his  school  girls,  his 
teachers,  and  all  women  there  was  a  courtly 
deference  that  gratified  them  and  made  it- 
self felt  in  the  community.  He  was  always 
ready  to  help  and  he  never  tried  to  lead. 
He  had  a  good  baritone  voice  and  added 
much  to  every  chorus,  but  he  could  not  be 
induced  to  sing  a  solo.  "  I  know  my  limi- 


58  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

tations,"  he  would  protest  modestly,  and 
nothing  could  swerve  him;  but  he  would 
listen  to  solos  unwearied,  and  when  he 
praised,  he  praised  intelligently. 

He  was  too  ready  to  respond  to  subscrip- 
tion lists;  people  were  almost  ashamed  to 
ask  him.  No  sooner  was  a  good  cause  men- 
tioned than  his  name  was  down  and  the 
money  paid  on  the  spot — a  feature  that  adds 
wonderfully  to  the  impressiveness  of  charity. 

He  was  a  constant  attendant  at  the  Bap- 
tist church,  where  the  young  pastor,  an 
earnest  and  sincere  man,  got  into  the  habit 
of  calling  for  Mr.  Bruce  and  going  off  for 
a  long  walk  every  Monday.  It  helped  the 
preacher  to  talk  over  yesterday's  sermon 
with  the  principal.  He  tried  to  persuade 
Mr.  Bruce  to  join  the  church,  but  to  that 
Mr.  Bruce  demurred.  "  I  have  lived  so 
long  in  rough  communities,"  he  said,  "  and 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  59 

I  have  seen  so  much  sanctimoniousness, 
that  I  should  have  to  feel  very,  very  sure  in 
my  own  mind  that  I  saw  the  light."  But 
there  was  no  work  in  church  or  Sunday 
school  within  the  scope  of  an  outsider  that 
he  did  not  hasten  to  do  when  it  was  sug- 
gested. 

"  A  very  useful  man  in  the  community," 
was  the  universal  verdict. 
Ill 

A  special  board  meeting  had  been  called 
on  the  last  Friday  in  May,  and  after  the 
immediate  matters  had  been  disposed  of 
there  was  some  discussion  as  to  teachers 
for  next  year. 

"  Of  course  we  can't  expect  to  retain  Mr. 
Bruce  at  twelve  hundred  dollars,"  said 
Judge  Fellows,  "  and  the  question  is  how 
much  more  we  are  justified  in  offeriDg  him." 

Several  members  had  expressed  themselves 


60  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

ready  to  propose  a  considerable  advance; 
pupils,  teachers,  parents  all  were  delighted 
with  the  present  management,  and  would 
not  complain  of  a  slightly  higher  school  tax. 

"  Why  look  at  the  confidence  this  com- 
munity feels  in  him,"  said  Mr.  Nutting,  en- 
thusiastically. "  He  came  in  to-day  and 
wanted  to  borrow  two  hundred  dollars.  I 
not  only  gave  it  to  him  but  I  wouldn't  even 
take  a  receipt  for  it." 

The  others  nodded  approvingly  but  under 
his  heavy  eyebrows  Judge  Fellows's  eyes  lit 
up  with  a  little  surprise.  However  he  only 
said:  "  Well,  gentlemen,  we  won't  cross  the 
bridge  till  we  get  to  it.  In  the  absence  of 
Mr.  Burbank,  chairman  of  the  .teachers 
committee,  we  couldn't  take  action  to-night 
anyway,  so  if  there  is  no  further  business 
we  may  as  well  adjourn.'1 

He  walked  down  the  street  with  Mr.  Nut- 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  61 

ting,  and  after  some  careless  chat  asked, 
"  How  did  Mr.  Bruce  come  to  want  two 
hundred  dollars  ?  " 

"  0  as  usual  for  somebody  else,"  replied 
Mr.  Nutting.  "  He  is  the  most  unselfish 
man  I  ever  knew.  It  seems  his  landlady, 
Mrs.  Hartwell,  had  a  mortgage  coming  due 
yesterday,  and  she  did  not  get  in  some 
money  she  had  expected  to  pay  it.  Bruce 
had  three  hundred  dollars  saved  up,  and 
with  the  two  hundred  1  let  him  have  she 
paid  the  mortgage.  He  is  going  to  pay  me 
one  hundred  dollars  out  of  this  month's 
pay  to-morrow,  and  the  other  hundred  a 
month  from  to-morrow.  His  personal  ex- 
penses are  very  light,  and  he  has  enough  on 
hand  for  them,  so  Mrs.  Hartwell  can  take 
her  time.  Did  you  ever  see  a  man  so  ready 
to  sacrifice  himself  for  others  ?  " 

"  He  is  indeed  on  the  lookout  for  every- 


62  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

one,"  said  the  judge,  reflectively.  "  I  must 
turn  here;  good  night." 

Mrs.  Hartwell  was  the  widow  of  a  friend 
of  Judge  Fellows  and  the  judge  had  always 
taken  care  of  her  financial  matters.  He 
knew  there  were  no  mortgages  on  her  prop- 
erty, and  he  was  much  concerned  over  what 
might  be  the  effect  of  some  advice  he  had 
recently  given  her.  He  went  to  the  house, 
apologized  for  calling  so  late,  and  said,  "  By 
the  way,  Mrs.  Hartwell,  I  have  changed  my 
mind  about  your  selling  that  Sea  Shore 
stock.  You  would  make  a  clear  five  hun- 
dred and  the  present  price  seems  abnormal- 
ly high,  and  yet  I  am  inclined  to  think  you 
had  better  keep  it." 

"  Why,  I  have  already  sold  it,"  said  Mrs. 
Hartwell. 

"  Sold  it  ?  "     The  judge's  tone  expressed 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  63 

surprise;  this  was  the  first  transaction  she 
had  ever  made  except  through  him. 

"Yes;  I  was  talking  with  Mr.  Bruce 
about  it  and  he  said  you  were  entirely  right; 
that  a  hundred  and  eighty  for  four  per  cent 
stock  was  ridiculous.  Besides,  he  happened 
to  know  of  a  six  per  cent  real  estate  first 
mortgage  on  Boston  property,  and  he  has 
gone  there  to  get  that  for  me,  It  is  a  two- 
thousand  dollar  mortgage,  but  he  is  going 
to  lend  me  the  difference  and  let  me  pay  him 
out  of  the  interest." 

"  I  see,"  said  the  judge.  "  Did  you  sell 
the  stock  here  ?  " 

"  Yes,  the  First  National  bank  took  it 
to-day." 

"  In  what  form  did  they  pay  you  ?  " 

"A  Boston  draft;  but  afterward  I  changed 
it  to  bills,  because  Mr.  Bruce  said  the  peo- 
ple who  owned  the  mortgage  were  old-fash- 


64  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

ioned  and  did  not  like  to  take  checks  and 
drafts." 

"  Mr.  Bruce  has  gone  to  Boston,  I  sup- 
pose ?  " 

"  Yes,  he  went  on  the  four-o'clock  train. " 

"  Very  obliging  man,  Mr.  Bruce.  How 
well  your  nasturtiums  are  looking,  Mrs. 
Hartwell ;  I  noticed  them  as  I  came  by  this 
morning." 

On  his  way  to  his  office  one  of  the  teach- 
ers met  him.  "  I  am  so  glad  I  saw  you," 
she  said;  "  will  you  lend  me  twenty  dol- 
lars ?" 

"  Why,  certainly,"  replied  the  judge, 
taking  out  his  pocket-book;  "  but  weren't 
you  paid  off  to-day  ?  " 

"  Yes,  but  you  know  Mr.  Bruce  always 
takes  our  checks  to  the  bank  and  brings 
back  the  money  to  us  at  the  schoolhouse, 
which  saves  us  lots  of  trouble.  To-day 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  65 

just  as  he  was  coming  out  of  the  bank  he 
got  a  telegram  calling  him  to  Boston,  and 
barely  caught  the  train.  So  we  shan't  get 
our  money  till  Monday." 

"  0  well,  I  am  very  glad  to  lend  it  to 
you,"  said  the  judge. 

He  went  on  to  his  office  and  called  up  the 
station  agent. 

"  Did  Mr.  Bruce  go  away  this  after- 
noon ?  " 

"  Yes;  he  took  the  four  o'clock  train." 

"  Did  he  say  where  he  was  going?  I 
want  to  communicate  with  him." 

"  He  called  for  a  ticket  for  Boston,  but 
the  train  was  drawing  out  and  he  jumped 
on  board  without  it." 

The  judge  called  up  the  chief  of  police, 
Boston. 

"  This  is  Judge  Fellows.  Yes.  Thank 
you.  It  is  about  a  confidence  man,  been 


66  WITHOUT    CREDENTIALS 

teaching  school  here,  became  well  estab- 
lished, suddenly  got  hold  of  a  lot  of  money, 
and  lit  out.  He  took  the  four  o'clock  train 
and  said  he  was  going  to  Boston;  pretty 
sure  sign  he  wasn't,  but  I  thought  I  would 
call  you  up.  Forty  years  old,  five  feet  nine, 
a  hundred  and  eighty,  smooth  face  except 
for  silky  black  mustache,  hair  black  and 
straight,  smug  appearance,  well  dressed, 
dark  mixed  suit,  black  derby;  looks  like  a 
well-to-do  club  man.  Thank  you.  I  don't 
expect  you  to  find  him,  but  if  you  do  call 
me  up.  Don't  under  any  circumstances  let 
the  newspapers  get  hold  of  it." 

Then  he  called  up  the  chief  of  police, 
New  York. 

"  This  is  Judge  Fellows.  Yes.  Yes, 
I  remember.  0  is  that  you,  Kafferty  ?  I 
recognize  your  voice  now;  glad  you  happen 
to  be  on  duty.  I  never  had  a  case  brought 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  67 

"before  me  in  better  shape;  you  had  taken 
care  that  every  link  of  the  evidence  was 
ready  when  wanted. 

"  0  Rrell,  this  is  not  nearly  so  important 
a  matter;  it  is  only  a  confidence  man  who 
has  got  away  with  a  few  thousand  dollars, 
but  of  course  we  should  like  to  nab  him  if 
we  can.  Thank  you. 

"  He  went  on  the  four  o'clock  this  after- 
noon, saying  he  was  going  to  Boston.  Prob- 
-ably  he  caught  the  Empire  State  at  Albany 
and  went  to  New  York.  You  might  tele- 
phone up  to  the  station  and  see  if  any  of 
your  men  happened  to  observe  him. 

"  Very  good  looking,  like  a  prosperous 
real  estate  or  insurance  man,  medium  height, 
moderately  heavy  build,  dark  clothes,  white 
linen,  black  derby  hat,  black  straight  hair 
just  a  little  long,  silky  black  mustache, 
cheerful  expression,  good  manners. 


68  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

"  Yes.  Yes,  it  is  very  characteristic  of 
him.  You  don't  say  so!  For  forgery! 
Well,  well;  and  I  have  been  on  the  bench, 
twenty-two  years  and  hired  him  for  a  teach- 
er. It  ought  to  keep  me  modest.  Well, 
nab  him  if  you  can.  Above  all,  don't  let 
a  word  of  it  get  into  the  newspapers." 
IV 

About  eleven  the  next  morning  Judge 
Fellows  called  on  Mr.  Burbank. 

"  Burbank,  have  you  five  thousand  dol- 
lars you  don't  know  what  to  do  with  ?  " 

"No;  but  if  you  want  it  I  have  five 
thousand  dollars  I  do  know  what  to  do 
with;  "  and  he  reached  for  his  check-book. 

"  I  don't  think  it  will  require  quite  all  of 
it,  but  it  will  cut  out  a  good  slice  of  it." 

"  What  is  it?" 

"  Bruce  is  a  scoundrel;  he  has  absconded 
with  some  thousands  of  dollars." 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  69 

"  Bruce  an  absconder!  How  did  you  dis- 
cover it  ?  " 

"  At  the  board  meeting  last  night  Nut- 
ting happened  to  mention  that  Bruce  had 
just  borrowed  two  hundred  dollars  of  him. 
He  had  borrowed  the  same  amount  of  me 
that  day." 

"  And  of  me  too." 

"  I  thought  likely.  So  I  changed  the 
subject,  adjourned  the  meeting,  and  walked 
down  the  street  with  Nutting.  I  chatted 
a  little  on  common-places,  and  then  asked 
him  how  Bruce  came  to  be  in  need  of  money. 
I  found  Bruce  had  pretended  Mrs.  Hartwell 
needed  it. 

"  I  got  away  from  him  as  soon  as  I  could 
and  hurried  to  Mrs.  Hartwell's,  troubled  be- 
cause I  had  lately  advised  her  to  sell  some 
Sea  Shore  stock.  I  was  too  late;  she  had 
sold  it  and  given  the  proceeds,  some  eigh- 


70  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

teen  hundred  dollars,  to  Bruce,  in  currency. 
Then  I  found  he  had  taken  the  teachers 
checks  to  the  bank  and  gone  off  with  their 
money." 

"  Anybody  else  ?  " 

"  Yes,  the  Baptist  minister;  eight  hun- 
dred dollars." 

"  Eight  hundred!  Where  did  he  get 
that  much?" 

"  It  seems  in  college  he  had  a  scholarship 
of  two  hundred  a  year.  He  has  always  re- 
garded that  money  as  a  loan,  and  has  saved 
up  the  money  to  repay  it  as  an  addition  to 
that  particular  fund.  He  had  confided  in 
Bruce,  who  applauded  his  sentiment  and 
offered  to  take  the  money  directly  to  the 
treasurer  of  Harvard." 

"  And  the  minister  gave  it  to  him!  What 
fools  we  mortals  be." 

"  I   don't   think   the   minister  is   to  be 


Of 


WITHOUT   CBEDENTIALS  71 

blamed.  You  and  I  introduced  the  man 
here  as  worthy  to  be  principal  of  our  school. 
We  were  supposed  to  know  him,  and  we  are 
responsible  for  him.  The  only  thing  I  see 
for  us  to  do  is  to  make  all  this  money  good 
and  keep  the  thing  quiet.  I  have  been 
president  of  this  board  seventeen  years; 
you  have  been  chairman  of  the  teachers 
committee  nearly  as  long;  I  take  it  we  can 
better  afford  to  put  up  three  or  four  thous- 
and apiece  than  to  have  it  known  we  are  so 
little  to  be  trusted.  For  my  part,  I  think 
we  are  lucky  that  it  is  only  in  money  mat- 
ters he  has  proved  unworthy.  I  called  up 
the  police  and  find  he  is  well  known  to 
them ;  he  has  served  a  term  for  forgery. 

"  By  the  way,  did  you  write  to  the  fel- 
low's references  ?  " 

Mr.  Burbank  looked  blank  and  then  re- 
flective. Instinctively  he  had  put  his  thumb 


72  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

and  index  finger*,  into  his  right  waistcoat 
pocket.  "  Wait  a  minute,"  he  said;  and 
presently  he  came  back  with  a  fancy  waist- 
coat. He  felt  in  the  right  lower  pocket  and 
took  out  a  piece  of  paper;  it  was  that  on 
which  the  judge  had  written  the  names  of 
the  men  to  whom  Mr.  Bruce  had  referred. 

"  You  see  how  it  was,"  Mr.  Burbank 
said;  "  I  never  try  to  carry  anything  in  my 
mind;  I  always  make  a  memorandum  and 
put  it  in  my  vest  pocket.  I  remember  now 
that  the  day  we  hired  Bruce  it  suddenly 
turned  cold  in  the  afternoon.  I  changed 
this  summer  vest  for  a  thicker  one  without 
looking  in  the  pocket,  and  I  haven't  worn 
it  since. 

"  See  here,  judge,  I  will  straighten  up 
these  accounts  myself;  I  am  the  one  who  is 
responsible." 

u  0  no,"  said   the   judge,   "it   must  be 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  73 

share  and  share  alike.  I  am  not  a  million- 
aire like  you,  but  I  have  never  yet  shirked 
my  share  and  I  am  not  going  to  begin  now. 
You  probably  would  have  got  no  replies  if 
you  had  written,  and  would  have  forgotten 
all  about  it.  What  a  magnificent  bluff  that 
was  of  the  twenty- dollar  bill  for  telegrams. 

"  Now  this  is  what  I  propose.  In  the 
first  place  we  must  have  a  man  here  Monday 
to  take  Bruce's  place.  We  will  call  up  Ap- 
pleton  by  telephone  and  leave  it  to  him. 
Let  him  use  the  long-distance  telephone  all 
day  to-morrow  if  necessary,  at  our  expense, 
but  let  him  get  a  good  man  here;  we  won't 
limit  him  as  to  salary  for  this  last  month." 

"  That  is  a  good  idea." 

"  Then  the  first  thing  Monday  morning 
we  will  have  a  bank  messenger  take  over  to 
the  schoolhouse  the  amount  of  the  salaries, 
and  the  teachers  will  understand  that  as 


74  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

soon  as  Mr.  Bruce  found  he  could  not  re- 
turn he  sent  the  money  back  to  the  bank." 

"That  is  right." 

"  Then  I  will  send  a  draft  to  a  friend  of 
mine  in  Boston  and  have  him  pay  over  the 
eight  hundred  dollars  to  the  treasurer  of 
Harvard,  and  have  the  treasurer  send  re- 
ceipt direct  to  the  Baptist  minister." 

"  Of  course." 

"  Then  we  will  pay  up  Nutting  and  any- 
body else  we  find  he  victimized.  As  for  the 
mortgage,  I  am  in  luck.  In  making  an 
exchange  of  property  in  Boston,  I  got  hold 
of  a  dwelling-house  on  which  there  were 
two  mortgages,  a  savings-bank  mortgage, 
which  I  have  already  paid,  and  a  second 
mortgage  for  two  thousand  dollars  which 
had  been  paid,  but  for  which  the  owner 
instead  of  cancelling  it,  had  taken  from  the 
mortgagee  an  assignment  in  blank,  think- 


WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS  75 

ing  he  might  want  to  borrow  the  money 
again.  This  assignment  of  course  I  have. 
I  have  only  to  fill  the  blank  with  her  name 
and  hand  it  to  her,  and  she  will  be  sure 
Bruce  did  just  what  he  promised  to." 

"  And  you  pay  up  a  four  per  cent  mort- 
gage, and  let  a  six  per  cent  mortgage  on  the 
same  property  run  indefinitely  ?  " 

"  0  it  is  only  a  matter  of  forty  dollars 
a  year  difference,  and  Hartwell  was  a  mighty 
good  friend  of  mine;  that  is  all  right." 

"  It  is  all  right,  but  half  that  forty  dol- 
lars a  year  is  mine." 

All  these  plans  were  carried  out.  Mr. 
Bruce  was  never  heard  of  again  in  Winchen- 
don.  It  was  understood  that  the  telegram 
which  took  him  away  summoned  him  to 
Europe,  and  only  two  men  there  know  that 
the  eulogistic  remembrances  of  Mr.  Bruce 
are  not  wholly  deserved.  They  are  still 


76  WITHOUT   CREDENTIALS 

president  of  the  board  and  chairman  of  the 
teachers  committee  respectively,  but  just 
at  present  they  are  not  hiring  teachers 
without  credentials. 


JOT,  THE  JANITOR 


JOT,  THE  JANITOR 


Thirty-four  years,  sir,  altogether;  that  is, 
I  have  been  regularly  appointed  that  long, 
but  as  a  matter  of  fact  I  have  done  the  work 
more  or  less  for  more  than  fifty  years.  My 
father  was  janitor  before  me,  and  the  earliest 
thing  I  remember  was  coming  to  the  school 
with  him,  holding  his  big  finger  in  my  little 
hand.  Then  I  began  to  help  more  or  less, 
and  in  his  last  years  I  did  most  of  the  work, 
so  really  I  am  as  you  say  a  veteran. 

Not  the  same  building  ?  Well,  I  should 
say  not,  sir.  I  have  seen  three  buildings  on 
this  very  site.  Fifty  years  ago  we  had  just 

a  plain  two-story  wooden  schoolhouse,  with 

(79) 


80  JOT,    THE   JANITOR 

wooden  benches,  and  eight  wood  stoves, 
one  for  each  room.  Many  a  time  my  back 
has  ached  carrying  wood  up  those  stairs. 

In  1865  we  put  up  a  brick  building,  and 
proud  we  were  of  it.  A  picture  of  it  and 
all  the  floor  plans  were  put  into  Barnard's 
American  Journal  of  Education.  It  was 
three  stories  high,  and  had  cherry  desks 
with  iron  standards,  and  chairs  to  match. 
It  was  heated  by  a  Culver  furnace,  set  in 
the  cellar  in  double  walls  of  brick  masonry, 
drawing  in  and  heating  the  cold  air  from 
the  outside,  and  sending  it  into  every  room 
by  registers.  People  came  from  miles 
around  to  see  that  furnace,  and  father  was 
very  proud  to  explain  how  it  worked. 

But  it  gave  us  lots  of  trouble.  At  first 
we  had  poor  coal,  that  used  to  slag;  we 
used  to  take  turns  getting  up  nights  to  rake 
it  down ;  even  then  it  went  out  sometimes. 


JOT,    THE   JANITOR  81 

Then  the  old  teachers  that  used  to  be  in  the 
other  building  complained  of  the  air;  they 
said  the  life  was  burned  out  of  it.  They 
would  open  the  windows,  but  that  would 
let  cold  air  on  the  heads  of  the  children, 
and  altogether  that  furnace  made  our  lives 
a  burden. 

Then  came  the  big  fire,  in  1872.  Father 
was  dead  then  and  I  was  janitor.  I  was 
one  of  the  first  to  hear  the  alarm,  and  I 
worked  all  night,  first  trying  to  save  the 
buildings  farther  down  the  street,  then  try- 
ing to  save  the  schoolhouse,  then  trying  to 
save  all  I  could  out  of  the  schoolhouse.  I 
did  get  out  most  of  the  teachers'  books  and 
some  of  the  best  apparatus,  and  I  was  in 
bed  for  a  fortnight  afterward ;  but  the 
schoolhouse  went — even  the  walls  had  to 
come  down. 

Then  the   board  put   up   this   building, 


82  JOT,    THE   JANITOR 

with  steam  heating  by  indirect  radiation, 
and  a  good  building  it  is.  I  know  every 
inch  of  it,  and  I  see  every  foot  of  it  every 
day  I  live. 

I  understand  that  in  some  of  the  later 
big  buildings  the  janitors  put  on  a  good 
many  airs.  Somebody  told  me  the  janitor 
in  the  new  high  school  at  Pepperell  called 
himself  custodian,  went  around  in  a  Prince 
Albert  coat,  and  the  first  time  there  was 
snow  telephoned  down  to  the  superintend- 
ent's office  to  have  a  man  sent  up  to  shovel 
the  walks.  Father  wasn't  that  kind  of  a 
janitor,  and  if  I  had  been  inclined  to  be  he 
would  have  thrashed  it  out  of  me.  There 
has  never  a  bushel  of  coal  gone  into  this 
building  that  I  haven't  shovelled  in  myself. 
I  won't  even  have  it  put  in  with  a  chute. 
I  want  to  see  the  coal  I  use,  and  more  than 
one  load  has  gone  back  to  the  yard  because 


JOT,    THE   JANITOR  83 

it  wasn't  up  to  the  standard.  I  would 
rather  shovel  coal  into  the  bin  than  slag 
out  of  the  furnace. 

0  yes,  sir,  there  have  been  a  good  many 
principals  here  in  those  fifty  years,  and  a 
great  variety  too.  As  for  teachers,  there 
have  been  hundreds. 

Bad  to  have  so  many  changes  ?  I  don't 
know,  sir.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  teachers 
don't  make  so  very  much  difference  in  a 
school.  If  you  have  the  right  janitor,  who 
keeps  the  temperature  even  and  the  air 
fresh  and  everything  neat,  the  school  will 
be  all  right.  The  best  of  what  children 
learn  in  school  doesn't  come  out  of  books. 

Children  of  my  own,  sir  ?  0  no.  I 
never  married.  Wanted  to  ?  Why,  not  to 
say  so,  sir.  There  was  only  one,  and  she 
was  so  far  away  it  would  be  as  though  you 


84  JOT,   THE   JANITOR 

longed  for  the  Princess  of  Wales,  or  the 
evening  star. 

Well,  sir,  it  was  like  this.  One  first 
Monday  in  September,  twenty-four  years 
ago  last  month,  I  was  as  usual  running  my 
eye  over  the  new  pupils  and  the  new  teach- 
ers, to  see  what  sort  of  material  we  were 
going^to  have,  when  up  came  a  little  body 
who  might  be  either  a  pupil  or  a  teacher;  I 
couldn't  tell  which  she  was.  She  didn't 
seem  to  know  anyone,  and  she  looked  about 
in  a  scared  sort  of  way,  uncertain  where  to 
go.  When  she  saw  me  she  came  up  to  me 
after  a  little  hesitation  and  asked : 

"  Can  you  direct  me  to  the  principal's 
room  ?  " 

From  the  way  she  spoke  I  knew  she  was 
a  teacher,  and  of  course  I  lifted  my  cap  to 
her  and  offered  to  conduct  her. 

I  tell  you  I  was  sorry  for  her.     We  had 


JOT,    THE   JANITOR  85 

at  that  time  a  real  brute  for  principal,  Mr. 
Harder.  We  have  had  principals  with  bad 
manners,  and  principals  that  were  rough 
spoken;  our  principal  now  used  to  be  that 
way  till  he  married.  But  then  those  other 
men  had  kind  enough  hearts  when  you  got 
at  them,  and  as  a  rule  I  have  found  that 
outspoken  men  are  square. 

But  Mr.  Harder  wasn't  square,  and  I 
don't  believe  he  had  any  heart  at  all.  Why, 
you  won't  believe  it,  but  once  that  man 
threw  a  kitten  out  of  a  third-story  window. 
We  had  been  troubled  with  mice — some  of 
the  children  carried  lunches  and  there 
would  be  crumbs  in  the  desks — so  I  brought 
this  kitten  to  school.  It  was  the  most 
trustful  little  thing;  it  came  right  from  my 
boarding-place,  where  its  mother  was  a  pet, 
and  the  children  here  just  loved  it,  so  it 
saw  a  friend  in  everybody. 


86  JOT,    THE   JANITOR 

One  morning  when  I  came  to  school,  that 
kitten,  which  had  always  run  up  to  me  and 
rubbed  itself  against  my  leg,  shrank  away 
in  a  corner  shivering-scared  at  my  ap- 
proach. Then  I  knew  that  somebody  had 
abused  it,  and  I  wondered  who  in  the  build- 
ing had  a  heart  black  enough  to  be  willing 
to  destroy  that  poor  little  animal's  trust  in 
human  nature. 

I  determined  to  find  out,  and  I  did  find 
out.  It  was  Mr.  Harder.  He  had  come 
across  it  on  the  landing  and  kicked  it  down 
the  stairs,  and  then  coming  up  to  it  where 
it  lay  shuddering  he  had  kicked  it  again, 
way  across  the  hall ;  one  of  the  boys  saw 
him  and  told  me. 

Well,  he  and  I  had  some  words  about 
that.  I  told  him  the  kitten  was  my  kitten, 
and  was  necessary  there,  and  had  a  right  to 
decent  treatment  there.  He  said  he  was 


JOT,    THE   JANITOB  87 

principal  of  the  school  and  had  charge  of 
the  building,  and  was  the  only  judge  of 
what  it  was  proper  for  him  to  do.  When  I 
began  to  say  some  more  he  threatened  to 
report  me  to  the  board  for  insubordination, 
and  I  told  him  if  he  did  I  would  report  him 
at  the  same  meeting  for  abuse  of  a  dumb 
animal,  and  for  setting  an  example  before 
the  boy  who  saw  him  that  all  the  teaching 
he  could  do  would  never  make  up  for.  It 
ended  in  a  drawn  game,  for  we  neither  re- 
ported the  other,  but  he  hated  me  and  the 
kitten. 

I  did  my  best  to  keep  the  kitten  out  of 
his  way,  but  one  day  it  wandered  up  to  his 
class-room.  He  was  giving  a  demonstration 
on  the  blackboard,  and  noticed  that  some- 
thing was  distracting  the  attention  of  the 
class.  He  turned  around  and  saw  this  kit- 
ten. His  scholars  said  his  eyes  actually 


88  JOT,    THE   JANITOR 

glared  as  he  grabbed  it  and  threw  it  with 
all  his  strength  right  through  the  open  win- 
dow. The  girls  screamed  and  two  of  them 
fainted.  As  for  the  boys,  some  of  them 
ran  to  the  window  and  reported  that  it  had 
fallen  on  the  brick  sidewalk  and  seemed  to 
be  dead,  and  all  of  them  looked  ugly. 
There  was  pretty  close  to  a  rebellion  then 
and  there;  I  only  wonder  they  didn't  chuck 
him  out  of  the  window  after  the  kitten. 

It  got  into  the  newspapers  and  finally 
resulted  in  his  dismissal,  but  at  the  time  I 
speak  of  he  was  still  here,  and  I  had 
thought  this  very  morning  that  he  was  if 
possible  uglier-tempered  than  ever.  So  I 
was  sorry  enough  for  this  poor  little  creat- 
ure I  was  taking  to  him,  who  seemed  to  be 
making  her  first  venture  out  from  a  loving 
home  into  a  hard-hearted  world. 


JOT,    THE   JANITOR  89 

"  If  you  will  give  me  your  name  I  will 
introduce  you,"  I  said. 

"  Thank  you;  I  am  Miss  Rulison,"  she 
replied.  "  I  am  to  have  the  third  grade." 

I  introduced  her  to  Mr.  Harder,  who 
browbeat  her  as  usual,  snorted  his  anger 
when  he  found  she  had  had  no  experience, 
declared  that  she  was  sure  to  fail,  and  told 
me  to  show  her  to  her  room. 

"  Is  he  always  like  that  ?  "  she  asked  in 
terror,  as  we  walked  down  the  hall. 

"  Well,  he  isn't  angelic,  miss,"  I  admit- 
ted, "  but  you  never  mind  ;  you  will  find 
plenty  of  good  friends  here." 

"  0  thank  you,"  she  said.  "  I  am  sure 
I  shall  find  you  one."  And  although  she 
knew  that  I  was  the  janitor  she  held  out 
her  hand  to  me,  and  shook  hands — not  con- 
descendingly, but  with  a  good  grip,  just  as 
you  shake  hands  with  a  friend  you  are  glad 


90  JOT,    THE   JASTITOK 

to  see.  And  then  she  asked,  "  Will  you 
tell  me  your  name  ?  " 

You  could  have  knocked  me  over  with  a 
feather.  No  teacher  ever  asked  me  my 
name  before;  it  was  always,  "  Janitor,  can 
you  give  me  a  little  more  heat?  ",  "  See 
here,  janitor,  my  room  hasn't  been  swept 
out  since  Tuesday,"  and  so  on.  Mr.  Har- 
der used  to  call  me  and  speak  of  me  as 
"  Jot  ",  but  then  that  was  because  it  made 
me  seem  a  servant  rather  than  an  official. 
When  there  were  visitors  and  he  felt  fero- 
ciously funny  he  would  call  out  to  me, 
"  Here,  Jot  or  Tittle,  whatever  your  name 
is,  fetch  another  chair." 

But  Miss  Rulison  wanted  to  know  my 
name,  so  as  to  call  me  by  it;  and  she  al- 
ways did  call  me  "  Mr.  Jot".  It  isn't 
much  of  a  name,  sir,  but  if  you  could  hear 


JOT,    THE   JANITOR  91 

her  speak  it  you  wouldn't  swap  it  for  an 
English  title. 

From  that  first  day  Miss  Rulison  and  I 
were  allies.  She  knew  I  would  stand  by 
her  in  any  emergency,  and  I  knew  that 
every  morning  her  little  hand  would  give 
mine  a  firm  shake,  and  her  sweet  eyes* 
would  look  into  mine  straight  and  trust- 
ful. 

I  wasn't  so  sure  of  the  afternoons.  It 
was  a  hard  term  for  her,  and  often  after 
school  was  out  I  found  her  still  at  her  desk 
her  head  bowed  upon  her  hands.  She  was 
never  troubled  to  have  me  see  her  so,  for 
she  used  to  confide  in  me,  and  often  when 
she  seemed  almost  ready  to  give  up  I  could 
find  something  to  say  that  encouraged  her. 

One  night  I  was  kept  in  another  part  of 
the  building  later  than  usual,  and  as  I 
started  for  her  room  I  saw  Mr.  Harder  com- 


92  JOT,    THE   JANITOR 

ing  out  with  such  an  exultant  face  I  felt 
sure  he  had  been  abusing  her.  I  did  not 
get  to  her  any  too  soon.  She  was  desper- 
ate. She  would  not  tell  me  what  Mr.  Har- 
der had  said,  but  she  declared  it  was  impos- 
sible for  her  to  enter  the  building  again. 
For  a  time  her  indignation  had  the  upper 
hand,  but  presently  it  gave  way  to  grief, 
she  began  to  cry,  and — well,  sir,  you  prob- 
ably won't  believe  it,  but  she  threw  her 
arms  around  my  neck  and  sobbed  on  my 
shoulder.  It  was  my  working  blouse  I  had 
on,  sir,  an  old,  worn-out  coat;  but  ever 
since  that  day  that  blouse  has  been  wrapped 
up  and  locked  away,  and  when  I  am  dead 
they  will  find  I  have  left  just  one  direction 
about  my  funeral,  that  in  my  coffin  I  wear 
that  blouse. 

0  of  course  it  wasn't  the  same  to  her  it 
was  to  me.     Why,  she  said  herself  between 


JOT,    THE    JANITOR  93 

her  sobs,  "  Some  way  you  seem  more  like  a 
father  to  me  than  anyone  else,  now  that 
mine  is  gone."  Not  that  I  really  was  so 
much  older.  I  was  thirty-six  then,  and  she 
was  twenty-two;  you  see  I  couldn't  have 
been  her  father.  But  then  that  was  the 
way  it  seemed  to  her,  and  of  course  I  never 
tried  to  change  it. 

And  then  there  couldn't  have  been  any- 
thing between  us,  you  know.  She  was  born 
and  bred  a  lady  to  the  finger-tips,  and  I 
never  took  much  to  schooling;  did  not  even 
get  into  the  high  school.  Of  course  I  have 
always  tried  to  correct  my  language  by  the 
teachers',  so  as  to  set  a  good  example  before 
the  children,  but  I  could  always  work  bet- 
ter with  my  hands  than  with  my  brains. 

I  experimented  some.  I  knew  Miss  Kuli- 
son  was  literary,  and  I  had  read  none  of 
her  kind  of  books.  So  I  went  to  a  book- 


94  JOT,    THE    JANITOR 

store  in  Ipswich  (I  didn't  want  to  do  it  at 
home),  and  I  asked  the  clerk  to  show  me 
some  way  bang-up  literature,  the  top  notch. 
He  handed  me  Milton's  poems,  and  told  me 
there  was  nothing  higher  up.  I  asked  him 
if  literary  people  would  know  that  book, 
and  he  said  yes,  by  heart. 

So  I  bought  it,  and  I  read  Paradise  Lost 
clear  through.  It  came  hard,  and  when 
I  got  to  the  end  I  doubted  whether  Adam's 
and  Eve's  steps  were  any  more  wandering 
and  slow  than  mine  had  been.  But  I  want- 
ed to  see  whether  I  had  any  literary  taste 
or  could  get  any,  and  I  did  find  some  places 
that  I  could  understand,  and  some  lines  I 
had  heard  before. 

I  began  to  try  these  on  Miss  Rulison,  to 
see  if  she  would  recognize  me  as  being  liter- 
ary too.  One  day  I  remarked,  sort  of 
thrown-in  like,  "  '  Better  to  reign  in  Hell 


JOT,    THE   JANITOR  95 

than  serve  in  Heaven,'  as  Milton  says." 
Miss  Eulison  lifted  her  eyebrows  a  little, 
but  made  no  reply.  Another  time  I  asked, 
"  Do  you  remember  where  Milton  says  in 
Paradise  Lost: 

'  How  beauty  is  excelled  by  manly  grace 
And  wisdom,  which  alone  is  truly  fair  '  ?  " 
"I  never  read  a  line  of  Paradise  Lost," 
she  replied  with  an  amused  smile;  and  then 
I  knew  it  was   useless  for  me  to  try  to  get 
into  her  class.     As  a  janitor  I  was  a  suc- 
cess, but  if  I  tried  to  be  literary  I  should 
only  be  laughed  at. 

However,  she  still  gave  me  her  good  firm 
grip  every  morning,  and  still  her  eyes  looked 
trustfully  straight  into  mine;  why  should 
I  dream  of  more  ?  Yet  more  came  to  me; 
what  an  exulting  delight  it  is  to  recall  how 
it  came  to  me. 

Near  the  end  of  the  term  one  afternoon 


96  JOT,    THE    JANITOR 

I  noticed  Mr.  Harder  making  a  tour  of  the 
rooms.  He  had  on  his  ugliest  face,  and  I 
hoped  he  would  keep  away  from  Miss  Ruli- 
son,  especially  as  I  had  observed  in  the 
morning  that  she  was  not  looking  as  well 
as  usual. 

Luckily  he  found  so  much  to  growl  about 
in  the  upper  rooms  that  school  was  dis- 
missed before  he  got  to  the  third  grade,  and 
I  breathed  a  sigh  of  relief.  I  hung  about, 
however,  and  noticed  that  when  Miss  Ruli- 
son  started  home  he  followed  her.  I  got  on 
my  overcoat  in  a  hurry,  and  followed  too. 
It  was  December  and  dark,  so  I  kept  within 
hearing  of  them  without  being  seen;  in 
fact,  his  voice  was  so  loud  and  rough  he 
could  be  heard  a  good  ways  off.  As  I 
feared,  he  was  declaring  her  work  an  utter 
failure;  assuring  her  she  was  the  weakest 
teacher  in  school,  with  no  natural  adapta- 


JOT,    THE   JANITOR  97 

tion;  and  he  finally  advied  her  to  give  up 
the  work  and  marry. 

She  had  replied  with  weariness  but  pa- 
tiently until  that  last  suggestion. 

"  It  is  within  your  province  to  advise  me 
about  my  school  work,"  she  said,  "  but  not 
about  my  private  affairs." 

"  But  suppose  I  make  your  private  affairs 
mine,"  he  said;  "  suppose  I  marry  you  my- 
self ?  " 

I  dug  my  finger  nails  into  my  palms  and 
managed  to  hold  back.  So  this  was  what 
the  coarse  old  bully  had  been  leering  at  her 
for.  Miss  Kulison  gave  him  a  glance  that 
ought  to  have  petrified  him,  and  said: 

"  The  conversation  stops  here,  Mr.  Hard- 
er. Good  night." 

"  It  doesn't  stop  here,"  he  said,  grabbing 
her  by  the  wrist.  "  It  doesn't  stop  until  I 
get  ready  to  have  it  stop.  You  are  in  my 


98  JOT,    THE   JANITOR 

power.  You  have  no  money  and  no  friends, 
and  you  have  got  to  either  teach  or  marry. 
If  I  declare  you  a  failure  as  a  teacher,  you 
must  marry,  and  you  had  better  take  me 
while  you  can  get  me." 

"  Kelease  me,  sir,"  she  said,  trying  to 
pull  away  her  wrist. 

"  Not  by  a  d — d  sight,"  he  said. 

You  will  wonder  how  I  could  have  held 
in  so  long,  but  0  how  my  fist  shot  out  and 
how  snug  these  knuckles  landed  on  his  right 
eye.  He  screamed  like  a  baby,  and  when 
he  saw  who  I  was  he  trembled  with  rage 
and  rushed  at  me  to  annihilate  me,  I  being 
so  much  smaller  and  the  janitor.  However, 
like  all  bullies  he  was  cowardly  and  couldn't 
stand  pain,  so  inside  of  a  minute  a  blow 
under  the  chin  sent  him  sprawling. 

"  Now,  Miss  Rulison,"  I  said,  "  if  you 
will  let  me  I  will  walk  home  with  you." 


JOT,    THE   JANITOR  99 

Out  came  that  little  hand  for  a  warmer 
'shake  than  ever,  and  then  it  nestled  trust- 
fully in  my  arm.  So  I  saw  her  home,  and 
when  we  got  to  the  door  she  said  to  me : 

"  Mr.  Jot,  you  are  the  best  friend  a  girl 
^ver  had." 

Then — well,  sir,  you  may  not  believe  it, 
but  she  threw  her  arms  around  me  and 
kissed  me;  kissed  me,  the  janitor;  kissed 
me  on  the  lips.  It  made  me  feel  as  if  it 
would  be  a  joy  to  fight  the  whole  world  for 
her 

Is  she  still  here  ?  0  no,  sir;  her  kind 
don't  teach  long.  She  was  married  the  next 
June  to  a  young  physician  from  Brooklyn 
who  visited  here  that  winter.  I  saw  him ; 
he  was  literary,  tall,  manly,  on  the  'varsity 
foot-ball  team  people  said;  probably  de- 
served his  luck.  No,  sir,  I  haven't  seen  her 
since. 


A  MASTERFUL  MAN 


A  MASTERFUL  MAN 


I 

"  0  girls,  we  are  going  to  have  another 
hard  day,"  sighed  Miss  Lewis,  coming  back 
from  the  window  to  the  group  of  teachers 
standing  by  the  radiator  in  the  A  grammar 
room;  "  he's  walking  fast,  and  his  hat  is 
tipped  forward." 

"  I  hope  he  will  keep  out  of  my  room," 
said  Miss  Andrus;  "everything  has  gone 
wrong  this  week,  and  if  he  comes  in  and 
scolds  I  shall  just  break  down." 

"  I  knew  this  would  be  one  of  his  cross 
days,"  said  Miss  Ferret,  in  whose  sharp  pro- 
file the  nose  turned  up  just  a  little  at  the 

tip;  "  all  Tuesdays  are  cross  days." 
(103) 


104  A   MASTERFUL    MAN 

"  Why  ?  "  asked  two  or  three  of  the  oth- 
ers, in  chorus. 

"  0,"  said  Miss  Ferret  with  a  smirk,  "  I 
found  out  that  at  his  boarding-house  they 
have  buckwheat  cakes  on  Tuesday  morning. 
He  always  eats  too  many  of  them  and  they 
don't  agree  with  him." 

"  Can't  you  get  Mrs.  Bacon  to  stop  hav- 
ing them  ?"  asked  Miss  Timrod;  "he  is 
hard  enough  to  teach  under  when  his  diges- 
tion is  normal." 

By  this  time  Mr.  Eollins  had  reached  his 
office.  As  he  unlocked  the  door  his  first 
assistant,  a  tired-looking  woman,  came  up 
and  said: 

"  Miss  Avery  is  down  sick  at  last.  She 
won't  be  able  to  come  back  this  term." 

"  This  is  very  unfortunate,"  said  Mr. 
Rollins;  "  her  room  is  behind  now,  and  to 


A   MASTERFUL    MAX  105 

put  a  new  teacher  in  there  five  weeks  before 
examination  means  failure." 

"  She  probably  did  not  break  down  ma- 
liciously," said  Miss  Marshall,  with  a  tinge 
of  sarcasm.  "  She  should  not  have  been 
here  yesterday;  when  she  went  home  she 
looked  as  if  she  ought  to  be  in  bed.  Her 
mother  sent  for  the  doctor  and  he  telephoned 
half  an  hour  ago  that  it  would  be  quite  out 
of  the  question  for  her  to  teach  before  next 
term;  she  is  threatened  with  typhoid  fever." 

"  Did  you  telephone  for  a  substitute  ?  " 

"  I  did.  She  is  here  now,  in  my  room. 
Shall  I  bring  her  to  you  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

When  Miss  Marshall  brought  in  Miss  May, 
Mr.  Rollins  scowled  at  her. 

"  You  don't  weigh  a  hundred  pounds," 
he  said;  "  couldn't  the  superintendent  send 
us  somebody  grown  up  ?  " 


106  A    MASTERFUL    MAN 

"  I  weigh  a  hundred  and  two,"  she  re- 
plied with  dignity,  "  and  I  am  full-grown." 

"  Well,  you  don't  look  it,"  he  said  cross- 
ly. "  Ever  taught  ?" 

"  Yes;  in  Elizabeth,  Montana." 

"  Are  the  schools  graded  there  ?  " 

Miss  May's  eyebrows  lifted  a  little;  the 
ward  schools  there  had  been  much  larger 
and  better  equipped  than  this.  But  she 
only  replied,  "  Yes,  Mr.  Rollins." 

"  What  grade  did  you  have  ?  " 

"  The  grammar  grades." 

"  You  will  have  8th  grade  here,  and  I 
warn  you  it  is  a  hard  room.  The  teacher 
has  not  been  well  this  term,  and  the  new 
class  has  been  running  away  with  her." 

"  I  shall  do  my  best  with  them." 

"  Yes,  but  they  will  pick  you  up  and 
chuck  you  out  of  the  window.  Well,  it 
can't  be  helped  now;  we've  got  to  begin 


A  MASTERFUL  MAN  107 

with  somebody.     Miss    Marshall   will  show 
you  the  room." 

II 

About  eleven  o'clock  Mr.  Rollins  strolled 
into  the  8th  grade  room.  The  period  was 
in  American  history,  and  Miss  May  after 
telling  them  that  the  fort  spoken  of  in  the 
lesson  had  been  within  walking  distance  of 
the  schoolhouse  had  been  asking  how  many 
of  the  pupils  knew  the  location,  why  the- 
fort  was  built  there,  what  were  some  of  the 
events  that  occurred  there,  and  so  on,  con- 
necting the  background  of  the  day's  lesson 
so  closely  with  what  they  themselves  had 
seen  and  known  that  they  were  all  eagerly 
intent. 

As  Mr.  Rollins  came  in  she  was  telling  a 
most  exciting  story  of  Indian  capture  and 
rescue,  so  exciting  that  the  pupils  hardly 
noticed  Mr.  Rollins's  entrance.  Perhaps  it. 


108  A  MASTERFUL  MAN 

was  partly  on  this  account  that  he  listened 
disapprovingly.  Miss  May  continued  her 
story,  and  presently  he  went  away  without 
speaking. 

But  after  the  pupils  were  dismissed  he 
stepped  into  her  room  on  his  way  down 
stairs. 

"  Miss  May,"  he  said,  "  I  see  you  have 
still  to  learn  the  first  principle  of  teaching." 

"  And  that  is?" 

"  That  teaching  is  measured  not  by  what 
you  tell  your  pupils  but  by  what  they  tell 
you." 

"  Are  you  sure  they  cannot  tell  me  a  good 
part  of  what  I  told  them  ?  " 

Mr.  Rollins  stared  at  her;  he  was  not  ac- 
customed to  have  his  teachers  answer  back. 

"  It  wouldn't  make  any  difference  whether 
they  could  repeat  those  cock-and-bull  sto- 
ries or  not.  Such  stories  are"  not  given  in 


A  MASTERFUL  MAX  109 

the  regents  examinations.  You  are  here  to 
see  that  they  know  the  history  as  it  is  laid 
down  in  the  book." 

"  But  I  found  the  history  as  laid  down  in 
the  book,  and  a  very  poor  book  you  use  here, 
had  no  interest  for  them;  so  I  tried  to  cor- 
relate it  with  something  that  had  interest. 
I  think  you  will  find  that  they  will  pass  an 
examination  on  the  lesson  as  well  as  on  my 
cock-and-bull  stories." 

Mr.  Eollins  was  ready  to  choke ;  this  snip 
of  a  girl  was  actually  defying  him.  He  put 
on  his  most  impressive  air.  "  Do  you  know 
the  meaning  of  the  word  education?"  he 
asked. 

"  I  know  that  hardly  any  two  authorities 
agree  upon  a  definition,"  she  said. 

"  It  comes  from  educere,  e,  out  and  ducere, 
to  draw,  to  draw  out,"  he  said.  "  You  are 
not  to  pour  information  into  pupils;  you 
are  to  draw  it  out  of  them." 


110  A  MASTERFUL  MAN 

Miss  May  smiled  quietly,  and  exasperat- 
ingly.  "  Isn't  there  a  difference  of  opin- 
ion about  that  derivation  ?  "  she  asked. 
"  Doesn't  the  ducere  mean  rather  to  lead, 
to  train  ?  Of  course  originally  there  is  not 
much  information  in  children's  minds  to 
draw  out;  in  fact,  a  child's  mind  is  mainly 
an  interrogation  point.  But  by  giving 
them  the  right  information  we  may  interest 
them  to  go  on  and  get  further  information 
for  themselves." 

"  We  can't  stop  to  argue  at  dinner-time," 
said  Mr  Rollins  retiring  with  further  marks 
of  disapproval.  Miss  May  must  have  got 
her  surface  arguments  out  of  some  teacher's 
journal.  He  hated  teacher's  journals.  If 
he  were  examining  teachers  for  a  license, 
his  first  question  should  be,  "  Do  you  take 
an  educational  journal  ?  ",  and  he  would 
license  all  who  didn't. 


A  MASTERFUL  MAN  111 

As  for  Miss  May,  he  simply  detested  her. 
Ill 

John  Eollins  prided  himself  on  being  a 
masterful  man.     He  could  be  that  without 
much  effort,  without  overcoming  a  certain 
shyness  that  it  was  easy  to  conceal  by  bully- 
ing.    So  his  manner  every  year  grew  more 
and  more  brusque,  his  voice   harsher;    he 
even  affected  clothing  of  coarse  texture  and 
rough  surface.     He  liked  Browning's  lines: 
The  better  the  uncouther; 
Do  roses  stick  like  burrs  ? 

Marriage  might  have  modified  him,  but 
till  recently  that  had  been  impossible.  His 
younger  brother  Ned  (only  they  two  were 
left  of  the  family)  had  married  imprudently, 
had  struggled  along  with  a  rapidly  increas- 
ing family,  and  had  depended  on  John. 
John  had  been  disagreeable  to  Ned,  and 
was  cordially  hated  by  Ned's  shiftless  wife, 


112  .  A  MASTERFUL  MAN 

but  he  had  paid  out  half  his  salary  to  keep 
Ned's  family  from  starving.  Fortunately 
Ned's  business  had  prospered,  and  he  was 
now  independent  of  John.  But  John  had 
been  called  a  crusty  old  bachelor  so  long 
that  he  considered  single-blessedness  an  in- 
tegral part  of  his  character,  and  he  had  no 
thought  of  marriage.  Now  that  he  was 
saving  money  he  contemplated  perhaps  en- 
dowing a  library  to  build  up  a  collection  in 
some  speciality,  or  possibly  establishing 
somewhere  a  scholarship  for  poor  boys. 

He  was  not  so  thoughtless  of  others  as  he 
seemed.  Miss  Marshall  had  been  shocked 
that  the  news  of  Miss  Avery's  break-down 
elicited  only  regret  for  the  harm  to  her 
room.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  Mr.  Eollins 
had  called  on  Miss  Avery  after  school,  and 
said:  "  Miss  Avery,  you  ought  to  be 
ashamed  of  neglecting  yourself  so.  Don't 


A  MASTEEFUL  MAN  113 

hurry  back.  You  just  lie  here  quietly. 
Don't  you  dare  come  back  till  you  are 
thoroughly  well.  We  will  take  good  care  of 
your  room,  and  it  will  be  waiting  for  you 
when  you  return,  whether  it  is  four  weeks 
or  four  months." 

It  was  just  what  Miss  Avery  wanted  to 
hear;  it  did  her  more  good  than  all  the 
doctor's  medicine.  Yet  it  was  somehow 
said  ungraciously;  a  person  in  the  next 
room  hearing  the  voice  without  distinguish- 
ing the  words  would  have  thought  he  was 
scolding  her.  Even  her  mother,  who  stood 
by  the  bedside,  wondered  that  he  could  not 
speak  more  humanly. 

The  fact  is,  all  these  years  John  Eollins 
had  been  repressing  his  kindly  instincts. 
To  all  of  us  there  is  continually  appearing 
the  opportunity  to  say  and  do  little  things 
that  might  make  others  happier.  Every 


114  A  MASTERFUL  MAN 

time  we  follow  the  suggestion,  the  sugges- 
tion next  time  is  stronger.  Every  time  we 
neglect  it,  next  time  the  impulse  is  weaker. 
For  the  ten  earliest  years  of  his  full  man- 
hood, John  Eollins  had  said  to  himself, 
"  That  is  not  the  sort  of  thing  for  a  mas- 
terful man,"  and  now  he  was  usually  blind 
to  the  opportunities. 

IV 

It  disturbed  him  that  Miss  May  should 
have  questioned  his  authority,  and  he  re- 
solved to  stamp  out  this  insurrection  with- 
out delay.  So  he  went  down  to  her  room 
the  next  afternoon,  and  found  her  teaching 
interest. 

"  I  see  you  are  using  the  6  per  cent 
method,"  he  said,  after  the  class  was  dis- 
missed. "  In  this  school  we  calculate  in- 
terest by  aliquot  parts." 

"  Very  well,"  she  said;  "if  you  prefer 


A  MASTERFUL  MAN  115 

that  method  I  will  teach  it.  I  see  the  book 
gives  only  the  6  per  cent  method." 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  but  the  aliquot  parts 
method  is  so  much  shorter." 

"  It  has  never  seemed  so  to  me,"  she 
replied. 

"  Why,  see,"  he  said,  going  to  the  board 
and  working  a  problem  both  ways.  "  There 
,are  fewer  than  two-thirds  as  many  figures 
by  the  aliquot  part  method." 

"  True,"  she  replied,  "  of  that  particu- 
lar problem,  but  try  this;"  and  she  put 
.another  beside  it,  in  which  the  6  per  cent 
method  was  much  shorter.  Then  she 
pointed  out  why  it  was  shorter  and  in  what 
class  of  problems  it  must  be  shorter,  and 
showed  by  reference  to  a  book  of  regents 
problems  in  arithmetic  that  this  kind  of 
problems  prevailed. 

Mr.   Rollins  listened   with  growing    dis- 


116  A  MASTERFUL  MAK 

pleasure.  He  always  kept  heavy  artillery 
in  reserve,  and,  cruel  as  it  might  seem,  he 
felt  that  now  was  the  time  to  use  it. 

"  Miss  May,"  he  said,  solemnly,  "if  we 
were  constructing  the  science  of  arithmetic 
this  sort  of  reasoning  might  be  tolerated; 
principles  have  to  be  evolved  and  to  evolve 
them  requires  comparison  and  argument. 
But  fortunately  the  responsibility  of  de- 
veloping this  science  and  the  other  studies 
of  the  curriculum  does  not  devolve  upon 
us;  all  that  is  asked  of  us  is  to  comprehend 
them  and  be  able  to  make  them  clear  to 
others. 

"  In  other  words  we  are  to  follow  author- 
ity in  interpretation  as  well  as  in  discipline, 
and  you  are  here  not  to  argue  with  me  but 
to  follow  my  instructions.  I  am  a  graduate 
of  Hiram  college — the  college  of  which  the 
lamented  Garfield  was  president;  my  di- 


A  MASTERFUL  MAN  117 

ploma  is  evidence  of  mental  discipline  and 
power  of  comprehension  which  cannot  be 
expected  of  the  holder  of  a  third-grade  cer- 
tificate. I  can  not  always  stop  to  explain 
why  a  thing  is  so;  it  should  be  enough  for 
you  if  I  tell  you  it  is  so.  I  am  to  lead; 
you  are  to  follow." 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  Miss  May 
humbly;  "  I  will  teach  the  aliquot  part 
method." 

V 

That  evening  his  landlady  had  guests  at 
supper— Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkhurst,  a  young 
clergyman  and  his  wife  from  a  neighboring 
town. 

"  By  the  way,"  said  the  lady,  "  you  have 
a  Miss  May  in  your  school." 

"  She  is  doing  substitute  work  just  now," 
said  Mr.  Rollins,  not  too  cordially. 

"  You  are  lucky  to  have  her,  even  tern- 


118  A  MASTERFUL  MAST 

porarily.  She  was  a  classmate  of  mine  at 
Vassar,  one  of  the  most  brilliant  girls  in 
college.  Then  she  went  to  the  Teachers 
college,  and  carried  off  the  honors  there." 

"  And  is  teaching  here  for  ten  dollars  a 
week  ?"  asked  Mr.  Kollins  incredulously. 

"  0  she  went  from  the  Teachers  college 
to  Elizabeth,  Montana,  as  supervisor  of 
grammar  grades,  at  a  higher  salary  than 
yours;  but  she  had  to  come  here  for  a  time 
on  account  of  some  property  .interests, 
while  an  estate  is  being  settled,  and  being 
here  thought  she  might  as  well  teach,  since 
she  is  very  fond  of  it." 

"  But  why  didn't  she  explain  who  she 
was?" 

"  That  wouldn't  be  her  way.  She  said 
there  were  no  places  likely  to  be  open  here 
which  a  third-grade  teacher  could  not  fill; 
so  she  passed  the  ordinary  uniform  examin- 


A  MASTERFUL  MAN  119 

ations,  and  never  told  your  superintendent 
that  she  was  more  than  an  inexperienced 
country  girl.  She  spends  every  other  Sun- 
day with  me,  and  has  told  me  a  great  deal 
about  your  school." 

Mr.  Rollins  looked  at  Mrs.  Parkhurst 
searchingly.  She  was  speaking  deferently; 
could  it  be  that  Miss  May  had  not  revealed 
what  a  clumsy  and  conceited  ignoramus  he 
was  ? 

VI 

He  did  not  sleep  much  that  night,  and 
the  next  afternoon  at  close  of  school  he 
went  into  Miss  May's  room.  She  was  seated 
at  her  desk,  and  rose. 

"  Please  keep  your  seat,"  he  said,  stand- 
ing on  the  floor  below  her  desk,  and  leaning 
with  his  elbow  upon  it.  "  I  want  to  speak 
to  you  at  some  length,  if  I  may." 

"  I  shall  be  glad  to  listen,"  she  said. 


120  A  MASTERFUL  MAN 

"  The  Parkhursts  took  supper  at  Mrs. 
Bacon's  last  night." 

"  Yes,  I  know.  Mrs  Bacon  invited  me 
to  meet  them,  but  I  had  another  engage- 
ment." 

"  Mrs.  Parkhurst  told  me  that  you  were 
a  graduate  of  Vassar  and  of  the  Teachers 
college,  and  in  Montana  had  had  a  salary 
of  sixteen  hundred  dollars." 

"  I  hope  there  was  some  more  profitable 
subject  of  conversation  than  my  personal 
history." 

"  Of  course  I  know  what  you  must  think 
of  me  after  what  I  said  to  you  yesterday. 
I  don't  expect  you  to  change  your  opinion, 
but  I  want  you  to  know  that  I  am  aware 
what  your  opinion  is  and  how  just  it  is." 

"  I  doubt  if  you  know  what  my  opinion 
is,"  said  Miss  May,  in  a  low  tone. 

"  To  you    a    college    education  doesn't 


A   MASTERFUL   MAN  121 

mean  much.  It  is  one  of  the  things  that 
come  naturally  into  a  life  like  yours,  an  in- 
cident. You  went  to  college  as  you  eat  din- 
ner, as  a  matter  of  course.  But  to  me  it 
was  everything.  I  am  not  much  now,  but 
if  I  had  not  gone  to  college  I  should  be  to- 
day as  I  was  before  I  went,  a  farm-hand  at 
a  dollar  a  day,  sleeping  with  the  other  hired 
men  in  the  attic. 

"  It  was  a  struggle  for  me  to  go  through 
college.  That  pocket-book  of  yours  there 
cost  more  than  I  spent  for  food  any  term 
I  was  at  Hiram.  The  first  term  my  chum 
and  I  lived  on  hasty-pudding  and  molasses; 
one  week  we  went  without  the  molasses; 
a  year  later  for  two  days  I  had  no  food  at 
all,  and  yet  I  studied  and  went  to  recita- 
tions." 

It  was  winter  and  the  days  were  growing 
short;  it  was  becoming  dusk  about  the  desk, 


122  A  MASTEKFUL  MAN 

and  Miss  May's  face  could  hardly  be  distin- 
guished. But  she  was  glad,  for  what  dropped 
down  unseen  from  her  face  upon  her  hand 
would  have  glistened  in  the  sunlight. 

"  What  costs  one  so  much  one  values. 
I  was  never  a  good  scholar;  I  was  poorly 
prepared,  I  was  always  behind  my  class,  I 
barely  got  through  my  final  examinations, — 
very  likely  sympathy  gave  me  my  diploma. 
At  ten  years  old  you  had  more  culture  than 
I  shall  ever  comprehend,  not  to  say  possess. 
And  yet  my  college  education  is  my  one 
achievement.  The  question  is  not  how  lit- 
tle Tarn  with  it,  but  how  much  less  I  should 
have  been  without  it. 

"  I  knew  you  were  teaching  on  a  third- 
grade  certificate,  and  I  supposed  you  were 
an  ordinary  country  girl  moved  into  town." 

"  That  shows  that  I  do  Vassar  little  cred- 
it,"1 interposed  Miss  May.  "  One  ought  to 


A  MASTEKFUL  MAN  123 

be  able  to  show  one  has  had  college  training 
without  wearing  a  Phi  Beta  Kappa  pin." 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  it  only  shows  that  I  am 
not  accustomed  to  distinguish  among  wo- 
men. I  never  in  my  life  talked  five  min- 
utes with  any  woman  not  a  farmer's  wife  or  a 
boarding-house  keeper  or  a  teacher." 

"It  is  worth  while  to  be  acquainted  with 
women  outside  those  professions,"  sug- 
gested Miss  May. 

"  No  doubt,  but  what  is  there  in  me  to 
interest  a  lady?  For  instance,  everything 
you  wear  and  have  about  you  is  dainty  and 
expensive.  I  could  not  make  you  under- 
stand what  a  wrench  it  was  for  me  to  order 
a  suit  of  clothes  made  to  order;  I  had  al- 
ways bought  them  ready-made.  I  don't 
belong  in  your  set,  to  your  kind  of  people; 
it  isn't  my  line,  so  I  have  had  no  chance  to 
know  women  and  distinguish  among  them. 


124  A  MASTERFUL  MAN 

"  This  accounts  for  my  speaking  as  I  did 
last  night.  I  was  too  ignorant  to  see  how 
different  you  are  from  Miss  Lewis  or  Miss 
Ferret;  I  was  not  trying  to  see  whether  you 
were  different.  I  am  not  making  an  apolo- 
gy; I  was  doing  the  best  I  knew  how.  Not 
to  know  better  was  my  misfortune.  Of 
course  it  simply  amused  you.  I  am  trying 
to  make  it  clear  that  I  see  how  just  it  was 
you  should  be  amused." 

Miss  May's  voice  wavered  a  little  as  she 
said: 

"  It  did  not  occur  to  me  to  be  amused, 
Mr.  Rollins." 

"  Surely  you  could  not  be  angry  at  such 
absurd  pretensions  ?  "  he  urged. 

"  No,  it  still  less  occurred  to  me  to  be 
angry.  Mr.  Rollins,  you  really  do  not  know 
women  very  well." 


A  MASTERFUL  MAN  125 

"  No,  I  do  not  know  them  at  all;  this  is 
the  first  time  I  have  wished  I  did." 

"  If  you  knew  women,  you  would  know 
that  there  are  two  qualities  in  men  they 
value  above  everything  else — strength  and 
honesty.  You  are  strong  and  you  are  hon- 
est— one  glance  tells  that.  A  woman  never 
ridicules  a  man  who  is  strong  and  honest." 

"  But  what  must  you  have  thought  when 
I,  barely  scraped  through  Hiram,  lorded  my 
intellectual  supremacy  over  you,  a  star  at 
Vassar?" 

"  What  impressed  me  was  how  much  col- 
lege meant  to  you.  I  wish  Vassar  meant  as 
much  to  me." 

"  But  you  did  not  need  Vassar  as  I  need- 
ed Hiram." 

"  And  I  did  not  get  so  much  from  it. 
I  honor  you  for  the  steadfastness  of  purpose 
that  carried  you  through;  it  is  a  record  to 


126  A  MASTERFUL 

be  proud  of,  a  basis  for  a  noble  and  useful 
life." 

"  You  really  do  not  despise  me  ?  " 

"  I  do  not  know  a  man  whom  I  respect 
more." 

"  But  as  an  educational  expert,  you  must 
see  how  lacking  I  am  as  a  school  principal." 

"  I  think  you  are  a  very  good  principal. 
You  are  master  of  the  situation;  that  is  the 
fundamental  thing;  nobody  ever  questions 
who  is  the  head  of  the  school." 

"  Yes,  but  I  am  a  tyrant;  I  should  have 
tyrannized  over  you  if  you  had  been  an 
ordinary  teacher." 

"  That  is  true;  and  yet  I  heard  some  of 
your  teachers  discussing  you  with  the  teach- 
ers of  another  school.  The  other  teachers 
said,  '  Our  principal  never  spoke  a  cross 
word  to  us  in  his  life.'  And  your  teachers 
said,  '  No,  and  he  never  stood  by  you  if 


A  MASTERFUL  MAN  127 

there  was  trouble.  Mr.  Rollins  is  cross, 
but  you  know  where  to  find  him,  every 
time.'  " 

"  Thank  you,  Miss  May;  I  am  glad  they 
said  that;  I  hope  it  is  true." 

"  Then  the  boys  swear  by  you;  they  know 
you  are  absolutely  square,  as  they  say." 

"  0  I  never  have  any  trouble  with  the 
boys;  we  are  good  friends.  But  to  you  I 
must  seem  such  an  untrained  teacher." 

"  From  the  standpoint  of  pedagogical 
formulas  you  are,  but  some  way  what  you 
teach  sticks.  I  have  been  surprised  to  see 
how  sure  your  boys  are  of  what  they  have 
learned  from  you." 

"  My  boys  get  on  a  good  deal  better  than 
my  girls." 

"  The  girls  are  afraid  of  you,  which  is 
unfortunate ;  and  your  women  teachers 
dare  not  say  their  souls  are  their  own, 


128  A    MASTERFUL    MAN 

which  is  a  calamity.  Your  heart  is  all 
right,  but  your  manners  need  over-hauling. '  * 

"  0  they  are  hopeless.  You  must  re- 
member I  was  brought  up  a  farm  hand." 

"  It  isn't  that;  your  instincts  are  true 
enough;  in  all  this  conversation  to-night 
you  have  shown  the  thought  and  the  ex- 
pression of  the  gentleman.  You  can  be 
as  courtly  as  you  are  true.  But  all  the 
world's  a  stage,  and  we  are  all  acting  parts; 
following  ideals,  often  set  for  us  by  acci- 
dent. Your  ideal  has  been  the  man  of  rude 
strength,  honest  but  impatient  of  conven- 
tionalities." 

"How  did  you  know  that?"  he  asked 
quickly. 

"  Your  every  movement  shows  it.  You 
are  a  conscientious  man,  trying  to  do  what 
is  right  and  worthy.  You  could  not  go  so 


A  MASTERFUL  MAK  129 

far  wrong  if  you  had  not  established  for 
yourself  an  ideal  of  unhewn  granite." 

"  It  is  true.  The  first  term  I  taught  I 
overheard  one  of  my  teachers  say  of  me  in 
awe-struck  tones,  '  He  is  such  a  masterful 
man.'  She  meant  it  for  admiration,  and  it 
flattered  me;  it  seemed  to  point  out  the  path 
I  ought  to  follow,  the  only  path  I  could  fol- 
low very  far.  Since  then  I  have  tried  to  be 
a  masterful  man." 

"  If  she  had  said,  as  she  might  just  as 
well  have  said,  '  He  is  such  a  thoughtful, 
considerate  man,'  and  you  had  tried  to  live 
up  to  that  ideal,  what  a  difference  it  would 
have  made." 

"  I  wish  she  had  said  that." 

"  I  say  that;  I  say  it  now;  all  your  talk 
to-night  shows  it.  Now  let  us  have  a  new 
ideal,  no  less  the  man,  but  more  the  gen- 
tleman." 


130  A  MASTERFUL  MAN 

"  Will  you  help  me?" 

"  With  all  my  heart.     You  shall  give  a 
first  manifestation  by  offering  to  walk  home 
with  me,  for  it  is  late." 
VII 

It  was  at  the  close  of  the  first  day  of  the 
spring  term,  and  the  Lincoln  school  teach- 
ers were  waiting  for  the  city  teachers  meet- 
ing, to  be  held  in  their  building  at  half- 
past  four. 

Miss  Avery  had "  returned  to  her  room. 
She  had  succumbed  to  typhoid  fever,  but 
the  siege  had  been  light,  and  she  had  not 
hastened  to  resumed  her  work,  so  she  looked 
rosier  and  happier  than  her  fellow  teachers 
had  ever  before  seen  her. 

"It  is  so  good  to  be  back,"  she  said. 
"  I  have  thought  of  those  scholars  ever 
since  I  left  them,  and  it  is  such  a  delight 
to  be  with  them  again.  They  have  done  so 


A  MASTERFUL  MAST  131 

-well,  too.  Miss  May  must  be  a  fine  teacher." 
"  The  best  of  it,"  said  the  first  assistant, 
**  is  the  way  she  has  kept  the  room  loyal  to 
you.  The  first  day  she  came  she  told  the 
scholars  that  boys  and  girls  did  not  realize 
how  much  of  herself  a  teacher  gave  them; 
that  you  had  literally  worn  yourself  out  for 
them,  and  that  perhaps  they  had  uninten- 
tionally made  it  harder  for  you  by  being 
thoughtless.  '  Now,'  she  said,  '  we  all  want 
Miss  Avery  to  get  well  as  soon  as  possible, 
don't  we  ?  '  And  indeed  they  all  did,  the 
way  she  put  it.  '  Well,'  she  said,  *  every 
-one  of  you  can  help  her  get  well.  Her 
thoughts  will  be  here;  she  will  want  to 
know  just  how  every  one  of  you  is  getting 
'On;  I  shall  go  up  to  see  her  every  week,  and 
tell  her  about  you.  Now,  if  she  hears  that 
John  Dole  has  really  mastered  division  of 
fractions,  that  Mary  Pratt's  penmanship  is 


132  A  MASTERFUL  MAN 

becoming  like  copperplate,  that  Fanny 
Rowe  put  on  the  blackboard  the  finest  map- 
of  New  York  the  room  has  ever  seen  there;, 
and,  best  of  all,  that  you  children  have 
been  so  anxious  to  have  her  get  well  and 
not  worry  that  you  have  given  me  no  trouble 
at  all,  but  just  helped  me  make  her  proud 
of  the  room,  why  fever  won't  get  any  hold 
of  her,  and  thoughts  of  school  will  be  a 
constant  delight.  Then  how  proud  you  will 
be  when  she  comes  back.' 

"  That  talk  just  took  with  the  scholars- 
It  was  sound  sense,  put  to  them  as  if  Miss 
May  and  they  were  partners  in  helping  out. 
Miss  Avery.  Really  the  results  have  been 
surprising." 

"  Miss  May  did  come  every  week,"  said 
Miss  Avery,  "  and  she  told  the  little  things; 
that  made  all  that  had  happened  real,  almost 


A  MASTERFUL  MAN  133 

as   if  I  had  been  here  myself.     I  wonder 
who  she  is." 

"  Nobody  seems  to  know,"  said  the  first 
-assistant.  "  She  boards  at  the  Goddards, 
but  she  is  always  away  Saturday  and  Sun- 
day, and  nobody  sees  her  much  outside  of 
school.  She  has  certainly  earned  a  perma- 
nent appointment,  and  I  hope  she  gets  it." 

"  She's  been  awfully  good  to  me,"  said 
Miss  Avery,  tears  in  her  eyes;  "  but  then, 
so  has  everybody.  Why,  girls,  you  haven't 
any  idea  what  Mr.  Kollins  is  unless  you  are 
sick.  He  has  come  to  the  house  two  or 
three  times  a  week;  when  I  was  too  ill  to 
see  him  he  brought  the  most  delicious 
oranges;  and  after  I  began  to  sit  up  he 
would  come  and  chat  for  an  hour,  telling 
me  all  about  the  school,  and  especially 
about  my  own  boys  and  girls." 


134  A  MASTERFUL  MAN 

"Ahem!"  coughed  Miss  Lewis  signifi- 
cantly; "  apparently  something  doing." 

"  Xot  in  the  least,"  said  Miss  A  very 
earnestly;  "  just  the  opposite;  like  a  com- 
rade, you  know,  as  if  we  were  partners,  as 
if  the  school  were  something  that  belonged 
to  us  both  together  and  which  I  had  a  right 
to  know  about.  When  I  got  stronger  he 
almost  always  brought  with  him  one  of  my 
boys  or  one  of  my  girls,  so  as  to  give  me  the 
small  gossip,  he  said,  that  he  couldn't  pick 
up.  To  think  that  a  man  so  cross  in  school 
is  so  thoughtful  and  considerate  when  you, 
are  sick." 

"  But  he  isn't  cross  in  school  any  more,'* 
said  Miss  Lewis;  "  you  can't  imagine  how 
he  has  changed.  He  always  bows  and  says 
some  nice  little  thing  when  he  passes  us,, 
and  that  harsh  voice  is  all  gone." 

"  He  has  made  life  different  for  all  of 


A   MASTERFUL    MAK  135 

us,"  said  the  first  assistant.  "  His  eyes 
shine,  as  if  he  were  happy  all  the  time. 
One  would  think  he  had  just  fallen  in  love." 

"  So  he  has!" 

Everybody  turned  to  look  at  Miss  Ferret, 
who  had  been  standing  on  the  outside  of  the 
circle  and  listening  with  a  superior  smile, 
and  who  now  spoke  for  the  first  time. 

"  With  whom  ?  "  Three  or  four  spoke 
together. 

"  With  Miss  May." 

"  Nonsense,"  said  the  first  assistant. 
"  He  was  never  with  her;  he  was  in  her 
room  less  than  in  any  other  in  the  building." 

"  You  don't  suppose  they  were  silly  enough 
to  spoon  before  the  school,"  said  Miss  Ferret. 

"  Where  did  they,  then?  He  certainly 
has  not  called  on  her  at  the  Goddards'." 

"No,"  said  Miss  Ferret,  sagaciously; 
"  they  haven't  been  advertising  their  love- 


136  A  MASTERFUL  MAN 

making.  But  they  have  made  it  all  the 
term." 

"  Where?" 

"  At  Ipswich." 

"  How  do  you  know  ?  " 

"  I  have  a  cousin  who  is  a  dressmaker 
there  and  does  work  for  Mrs.  Parkhurst, 
the  minister's  wife.  Miss  May  stays  there 
most  every  week  from  Friday  night  to  Mon- 
day morning." 

"  Well?" 

"  Why,  after  my  cousin  had  told  me  this 
I  noticed  that  Mr.  Rollins  was  away  a  good 
deal  over  Sunday,  and  I  began  to  put  two 
and  two  together.  Finally  I  spent  Sunday 
in  Ipswich  myself,  and  sure  enough,  into 
church  came  Mr.  Rollins  and  Miss  May  to- 
gether as  close  as  two  peas  in  a  pod.  Then 
I  found  out  he  was  there  most  as  often  as 


A  MASTERFUL  MAtf  137 

she  was.  And  the  next  day  after  the  term 
closed  she  wore  a  diamond  ring." 

"  How  you  do  find  out  things !  "  the  others 
cried  admiringly. 

"  Well  it  is  a  good  match,"  said  the  first 
assistant,  "  and  Pm  glad  of  it.  Miss  May 
is  a  dainty  little  body,  just  right  for  a  man 
so  big  and  burly  and  bungling,  and  yet  so 
strong  and  tender.  And  she  has  improved 
him  a  lot  already,  if  it  really  is  her  doing." 

"  It  certainly  is,"  said  Miss  Ferret. 
"  'Sh!  here  comes  Mr.  Rollins." 

"  Well,  Miss  Avery,  how  did  the  first 
day  go  ?  "  he  asked  cheerily,  nodding  pleas- 
antly to  the  others,  and  taking  her  hand. 

"  Delightfully,"  she  cried.  "  I  can 
never  tell  how  much  I  owe  to  you  and  to 
Miss  May." 

"  I  am  glad  you  couple  our  names,"  he 
said  with  serious  happiness.  "  She  author- 


138  A  MASTERFUL  MAN 

izes  me  to  tell  you  that  in  June  our  names 
are  to  become  the  same." 

"  0  I  am  so  glad,"  cried  Miss  Avery;  "  it 
was  a  blessed  day  when  she  took  my  place." 

"  It  was  a  blessed  day,"  said  Mr.  Rollins, 
with  a  simple  reverence  that  brought  tears 
even  to  the  eyes  of  Miss  Ferret. 

Years  after  that  astute  observer  remarked: 
"  Whenever  Mr.  Rollins  speaks  of  his  wife 
his  tone  somehow  makes  you  think  he  is 
mentally  lifting  his  hat." 


ON  A  PEDESTAL 


ON  A  PEDESTAL 


I 

"  Is  this  Mr.  Appleton  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir;  take  a  seat." 

"  My  name  is  Kalph  Armstrong." 

"  Late  of  Boylford  college  ?  " 

"  Yes."     With  an  air  of  surprise. 

"  I  am  glad  to  see  you,  Mr.  Armstrong; 
I  thought  you  were  entirely  right  in  that 
matter." 

"  Then  you  knew  about  it?"  In  still 
greater  surprise. 

"  0  yes;  it  is  part  of  our  work  here  to 
know  what  is  going  on  in  educational  insti- 
tutions, especially  where  there  are  contro- 
versies. These  often  lead  to  vacancies  we 
(141) 


142  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

have  to  fill,  and  to  pick  the  right  man  we 
have  to  know  the  circumstances. — Bring  me 
what  we  have  about  Boylford,"  Mr.  Apple- 
ton  said  to  an  assistant. 

A  half  dozen  envelopes  were  handed  to 
him,  most  of  them  containing  catalogues, 
but  one  of  them  marked  "  President 
Armstrong's  resignation  ".  As  Mr.  Apple- 
ton  opened  this  and  took  out  a  handful 
of  newspaper  slips,  Mr.  Armstrong  was 
amazed;  here  was  a  fuller  history  of  the 
affair  than  he  had  kept  himself.  He  color- 
ed as  he  recognized  some  pictures  from  the 
Chicago  Chromeyellow,  one  of  them  a  sup- 
posed likeness  of  himself.  Mr.  Appleton 
ran  over  them  hastily. 

"  Yes,"  he  said  with  conviction,  "  I  re- 
member feeling  assured  at  the  time  you 
took  the  only  step  open  to  an  honorable  man. 
Whether  you  were  right  to  make  an  issue 


OST    A    PEDESTAL  143 

until  you  were  sure  of  the  majority  of  your 
trustees  might  of  course  be  a  question;  but 
having  made  the  issue  you  could  not  remain 
unless  you  were  sustained." 

"  I  had  the  promise  of  the  support  of 
four-fifths  of  my  trustees,"  said  Mr.  Arm- 
strong; "  it  was  a  case  where  the  chief  past 
and  prospective  donor  to  the  college  unex- 
pectedly interfered,  and  his  word  was  law." 

"  Then  of  course  you  had  to  resign,  and 
you  were  well  out  of  it.  That  was  eighteen 
months  ago;  what  have  you  been  doing 
since?" 

"  Lounging  about  Europe,  studying  some, 
observing  a  good  deal,  getting  two  or  three 
languages  so  that  they  signify  something  to 
the  ear,  making  a  historical  background  for 
my  reading." 

"  Eeady  for  work  again  ?  " 

Mr.  Armstrong  hesitated ;  he  had  not  in- 


144  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

tended  to  register  in  this  teachers  agency; 
he  had  heard  about  it,  and  had  dropped  in 
patronizingly  to  see  what  it  was  like.  It 
did  not  resemble  an  intelligence  office  so 
much  as  he  had  supposed.  Finally  he  re- 
plied, "  I  presume  so,  in  September." 

"  You  couldn't  take  a  place  right  off  ?  " 

"  When  ?  " 

"  Next  Monday  morning." 

"  On  forty  hours  notice  ?  " 

"  Why  not?  You  have  been  a  high 
school  principal,.  I  believe  ?  " 

Mr.  Armstrong's  face  softened,  and 
there  was  a  tender  light  in  his  eyes  as  he 
said,  "  The  years  I  remember  most  happily 
are  those  I  spent  as  principal  of  the  high 
school  at  Bethel.  What  a  delight  it  is  to 
deal  with  young  people  just  passing  into 
manhood  and  womanhood.  There  was 
nothing  my  senior  class  would  not  do  for 


Q]ST    A    PEDESTAL  145 

me;  there  was  not  much  I  hesitated  to  do 
for  them.  It  looked  like  promotion  to  be- 
come college  professor  and  college  president, 
but  I  have  often  thought  I  might  better 
have  staid  in  Bethel." 

"  You  are  just  the  man  I  want.  Princi- 
pal Bruce  of  Winchendon  has  been  sudden- 
ly called  away,  and  I  am  instructed  to  get  a 
successor  there  Monday  morning  without 
fail." 

"  How  did  Mr.  Bruce  happen  to  go 
away  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  Judge  Fellows  tele- 
phoned me  that  he  had  gone,  and  that  only 
a  superior  man  could  fill  his  place." 

"  Did  you  know  Mr.  Bruce  ?  " 

"  No;  he  was  from  the  west,  I  think;  I 
never  heard  of  him  till  I  learned  of  his  ap- 
pointment there." 

"  You  think  there  has   been  no  contro- 


146  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

versy  there  ?  I  am  not  anxious  for  any 
more  quarrelling." 

"  So  far  as  I  know  everything  has  been 
smooth ;  in  fact  Judge  Fellows's  one  anxiety 
seemed  to  be  sure  of  some  one  who  could 
fill  Mr.  Bruce's  place  without  the  school's 
feeling  the  loss." 

"  What  will  be  the  salary  ?  " 

"  That  is  left  entirely  to  me.  I  should 
think  a  fair  compromise  between  what  they 
have  been  accustomed  to  pay  and  what  you 
ought  to  command  would  be  two  hundred 
dollars  for  the  month.  I  will  guarantee  you 
that  amount." 

Mr.  Armstrong  was  tempted;  he  had 
spent  more  at  the  last  in  Europe  than  he 
had  intended,  and  this  two  hundred  would 
be  a  help. 

"  You  are  summary  in  your  way  of  doing 
business,"  he  said  with  a  smile.  "  Half  an 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  147 

hour  ago  you  did  not  know  I  existed,  yet 
now  you  offer  me  a  place  to  begin  day  after 
to-morrow." 

"  I  don't  send  out  strangers  like  that," 
said  Mr.  Appleton.  "  Half  an  hour  ago  I 
did  not  know  whether  you  were  still  living, 
but  I  knew  a  good  deal  about  you,  and 
should  have  felt  that  if  you  were  still  liv- 
ing you  would  be  a  good  man  for  any  place. 
This  personal  interview  more  than  confirms 
my  good  impressions.  I  shall  send  you  to 
Winchendon  with  no  misgivings." 

"  I  will  go,"  said  Mr.  Armstrong,  "  and 
try  to  justify  your  impressions.  You  want 
me  to  fill  out  some  blank,  I  suppose  ?  " 

"  I  should  like  to  have  you  do  so,  to  keep 
our  records  complete,  but  put  it  in  your 
pocket;  you  have  only  time  to  catch  the 
train.  See  Judge  Fellows  to-night,  so  that 


148  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

his  mind  will  be  at  rest;  and  he  can  give 
you  pointers  to  think  of  over  Sunday." 

II 

Before  the  first  day  was  over  the  Win- 
chendon  school  knew  that  no  mistake  had 
been  made  in  securing  Principal  Armstrong. 
He  was  wholly  unlike  Mr.  Bruce  in  manner 
and  in  method,  but  the  expert  hand  was 
felt  before  he  had  finished  the  opening  ex- 
ercises, and  the  few  faint  attempts  at  in- 
subordination were  dealt  with  so  summarily 
that  there  was  no  temptation  to  repeat  them. 
When  he  called  Dick  Jones  to  him  at  recess 
to  inquire  as  to  some  mischief,  and  Jones 
began  to  beat  about  the  bush,  he  looked 
him  straight  in  the  eye  and  said:  "  You 
know,  Jones,  I  always  believe  absolutely 
what  a  boy  tells  me;  it  would  be  intoler- 
able to  deal  with  boys  I  could  not  trust." 
Jones  stammered  a  little,  floundered  about 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  149 

some,  but  finally  to  his  own  surprise  told 
the  matter  just  as  it  had  occurred.  This  was 
talked  about,  and  the  leading  boys  decided 
it  was  best  to  deal  with  Mr.  Armstrong 
squarely.  He  dealt  squarely  with  them. 
He  always  heard  a  boy  clear  through,  and 
showed  that  he  considered  fairly  the  boy's 
point  of  view.  Before  the  second  day  was 
done  the  boys  among  themselves  had  em- 
phatically pronounced  Mr.  Armstrong  all 
right. 

The  question  of  mastery  settled,  the 
school  had  leisure  to  observe  his  personal- 
ity. It  was  easy  to  see  that  he  was  of  a 
much  higher  type  of  man  than  Mr.  Bruce. 
It  would  never  occur  to  the  pupils  to  be 
familiar  with  him,  as  they  often  were  with 
Mr.  Bruce,  but  they  learned  to  come  to 
him  freely,  and  found  that  he  never  turned 
them  away  impatiently.  Even  to  a  small 


150  OK    A    PEDESTAL 

child  he  would  listen  deferentially,  advising 
her  in  her  little  troubles  as  gravely  and  con- 
siderately as  though  she  were  of  his  own 
age.  But  there  was  something  lifting  about 
him.  He  seemed  wiser  and  more  cultured 
and  broader-minded  than  the  other  men 
they  had  known.  Some  of  the  more 
thoughtful  scholars  studied  him  to  see  what 
it  was  that  gave  this  impression  and  won- 
dered whether  they  could  attain  it. 

Ill 

The  third  day  he  was  there  he  had  made 
a  purchase  in  Tucker's  grocery  and  was 
turning  away,  when  Alice  Manchester,  a 
little  girl  in  the  fifth  grade,  who  was  in 
another  part  of  the  store  and  wanted  to 
speak  to  him,  ran  toward  him.  To  reach 
him  she  ran  over  a  trap-door  opening  down- 
ward to  the  cellar,  which  by  the  careless- 
ness of  an  errand-boy  had  been  insufficient- 


Otf    A    PEDESTAL  151 

ly  fastened  below.  Just  as  she  called  Mr. 
Armstrong's  name  he  saw  the  door  open 
and  the  child  fall  screaming  through.  He 
dropped  himself  down,  hanging  by  his 
hands  to  the  floor  on  the  side  farthest  from 
where  she  fell,  and  asked:  "Shall  I  hit 
you  if  I  drop  ?  " 

A  faint  voice  came  out  of  the  darkness : 

"No;  it  is  about  four  feet." 

The  effort  exhausted  her;  when  he 
reached  her  she  had  fainted.  He  called 
up  for  some  one  to  run  for  the  nearest  phy- 
sician, satisfied  himself  no  limb  was  broken, 
and  gathering  her  up  tenderly  in  his  arms 
groped  his  way  to  the  stairs,  the  door  at  the 
head  of  which  was  by  this  time  opened. 
He  took  her  to  the  office,  where  fortunately 
there  was  a  couch,  Mr.  Tucker  liking  to 
take  a  noonday  nap.  He  had  hardly  laid 
the  poor  child  down,  when  in  came  Dr. 


152  OK    A     PEDESTAL 

Lyndon,  a  woman  physician  whose  office 
was  near  by.  As  she  entered,  he  was  about 
to  withdraw  with  the  other  men,  but  she 
stopped  him.  "  You  are  Mr.  Armstrong, 
I  believe  ?  Please  stay;  I  may  need  you." 

He  turned  his  head  as  she  loosened  the 
child's  clothing  and  examined  the  extent  of 
the  injury.  "  Fortunately  she  did  not  fall 
quite  on  the  end  of  her  spine,"  Dr.  Lyndon 
said  at  length,  "  but  she  is  terribly  bruised, 
and  there  may  be  serious  internal  injuries. 
Will  you  ring  for  an  ambulance,  please  ?  " 

When  the  ambulance  came  and  the  office 
door  was  opened,  Mr.  Tucker's  anxious  face 
appeared.  "  Is  she  seriously  hurt  ?  "  he 
asked. 

Dr.  Lyndon  addressed  Mr.  Armstrong. 
"  It  will  probably  cost  this  man  from  two 
to  ten  thousand  dollars,"  she  said  disdain- 
fully. 


OK    A    PEDESTAL  153 

"  You  are  unjust  to  me,"  cried  Mr. 
Tucker;  "  I  would  rather  give  every  dollar 
1  have  in  the  world  than  have  her  perma- 
nently crippled." 

There  was  pain  as  well  as  indignation  in 
his  voice.  Dr.  Lyndon  turned  to  him  and 
offered  him  her  hand.  "  I  have  done  you 
wrong,"  she  said;  "  nothing  shall  be  spared 
to  restore  the  child  to  soundness  and 
health." 

She  would  have  directed  Mr.  Armstrong 
how  to  carry  the  child,  but  he  was  already 
lifting  her  with  a  deft  tenderness  that  sur- 
prised the  physician.  Both  the  principal 
and  the  physician  rode  in  the  ambulance  to 
Alice's  home,  and  both  staid  there  till  the 
little  one  was  restored  to  consciousness. 
To  the  surprise  of  both,  when  Alice  opened 
her  eyes  it  was  to  Mr.  Armstrong  she  turned 
first,  and  she  held  out  her  little  hand  to 


154  CW    A    PEDESTAL 

him.     "  It  was  awful  good  of  you  to  drop 
down  after  me,"  she  said. 

His  eyes  were  moist  as  he  bent  over  and 
kissed  her,  almost  bashfully,  and  he  came 
again  that  evening.  He  was  able  to  see 
her,  and  he  talked  with  her,  telling  her 
simple  stories  in  his  grave  way,  and  discus- 
sing with  her  points  that  especially  inter- 
ested her.  "  You  make  me  forget  my 
pain,"  the  child  said,  and  the  mother 
begged  him  to  come  again  the  next  evening. 
The  result  was  that  he  came  every  evening, 
and  grew  to  look  forward  to  the  hour  with 
as  much  anticipation  as  the  child.  They 
had  strange  conversations,  for  she  was  a 
thoughtful  child  and  he  talked  with  her  as 
with  an  equal,  giving  her  freely  his  best 
thought  and  his  fullest  experience  in  all 
that  interested  her. 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  155 

IV 

The  most  fascinating  topic  to  her  had 
proved  to  be  his  travels,  and  finally  she  had 
insisted  that  he  should  begin  with  the 
steamer  in  New  York  harbor  and  tell  her 
consecutively  about  his  entire  trip. 

One  evening  Dr.  Lyndon  had  come  to 
call  upon  her,  and  hearing  their  conversa- 
tion sat  down  unannounced  Jn  the  adjoin- 
ing room  and  listened. 

"  What  time  did  you  get  to  Rotterdam  ?  " 
asked  Alice.  Then  she  laughed  merrily. 
"  Honest,"  she  said,  "  I  can't  help  feeling 
just  as  if  I  were  swearing  to  say  that 
name." 

"  If  it  were  swearing  you  would  do  lots 
of  it  in  Holland,"  said  Mr.  Armstrong, 
"  with  your  Rotterdam  and  Amsterdam  and 
Zaandam.  It  was  after  dark  when  the  train 
got  there.  I  went  to  a  hotel  right  on  th& 


156  Otf    A    PEDESTAL 

dock,  looking  out  on  the  water;  and  after 
dinner  I  went  out  to  see  the  town.  I  had 
a  map  in  my  pocket,  but  in  a  new  place  I 
like  just  to  wander,  without  knowing  where 
I  am  going;  one  often  runs  across  things 
one  would  not  see  if  one  had  planned  what 
to  look  for. 

"  I  followed  the  street  where  the  shop- 
windows  were  most  brilliant,  and  when  I 
had  passed  beyond  the  shops  and  the  street 
was  less  interesting,  I  turned  to  the  left, 
intending  to  go  a  block  and  then  return  by 
a  parallel  street.  I  walked  quite  a  distance, 
far  enough  to  be  reaching  the  brilliantly 
lighted  part  of  the  city  again,  but  I  seemed 
to  be  getting  farther  into  the  suburbs.  I 
took  out  my  map,  but  the  street  lamps  were 
very  high  and  did  not  give  light  enough  for 
me  to  read  the  names  of  the  streets. 

"  I  never  ask  to  be  directed  if  I  can  help 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  157 

it,  but  it  was  manifest  I  must  ask  now,  so 
when  a  man  came  along  I  inquired  how  to 
get  to  the  Hotel  Des  Bains.  '  I  am  going 
within  sight  of  it,'  he  said  politely,  '  and 
shall  be  glad  to  show  you.'  To  my  sur- 
prise he  took  a  direction  which  seemed  to 
me  away  from  the  hotel.  I  did  not  express 
any  doubt  of  him,  but  I  wondered,  and  as 
we  went  farther  and  farther  and  still 
saw  nothing  to  indicate  approach  to  the 
centre  of  the  town  I  grew  suspicious.  The 
street  was  along  the  bank  of  a  canal,  and  I 
managed  to  keep  him  on  the  water  side ;  I 
reckoned  as  I  measured  myself  with  him 
that  if  he  attempted  to  rob  me  I  could  hold 
my  own.  Finally  just  as  I  was  about  to  say 
this  thing  had  gone  far  enough  and  I  did 
not  care  to  be  led  to  greater  distance,  we 
made  a  sudden  turn  and  he  pointed  out  the 
hotel  to  me.  When  I  got  to  my  room  and 


158  OK    A    PEDESTAL 

examined  the  map,  I  found  that  instead  of 
taking  a  parallel  street  I  had  taken  one  al- 
most at  right  angles,  and  had  followed  it 
way  to  the  southwestern  part  of  the  city." 

"  When  you  though  he  was  leading  you 
wrong  were  you  scared  ?  "  asked  Alice. 

"  That  depends  upon  what  you  mean  by 
scared,"  replied  Mr.  Armstrong. 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  scared  ?  "  asked 
Alice. 

"  I  should  say  that  to  be  scared  is  to  lose 
one's  presence  of  mind.  When  a  horse  is 
scared  he  runs  away  madly,  which  is  a  fool- 
ish thing  to  do.  People  who  are  scared 
usually  do  silly  things.  In  this  case  the 
man  seemed  to  be  going  out  of  his  way -to 
take  me  out  of  my  way,  and  I  could  think 
of  no  reason  unless  he  wanted  to  rob  me. 
So  I  was  apprehensive  and  alert,  but  I  don't 
think  I  was  scared,  I  was  cool  and  more 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  159 

than  usually  master  of  myself,  only  I  was 
on  the  lookout  for  anything  that  might 
happen,' 

"  Were  you  ever  scared  ?  " 

"  I  don't  think  I  ever  lost  my  presence  of 
mind." 

"  Did  your  presence  of  mind  ever  prompt 
you  to  absence  of  body  ?  "  persisted  Alice, 
roguishly. 

"  Well,  of  all  the  impertinence,"  cried 
Mr.  Armstrong,  playfully  boxing  her  ears; 
"  what  right  has  a  girl  ten  years  old  to  be 
making  saucy  epigrams  ?  " 

"  But  did  you  ever  run  away  ?  "  the  child 
still  urged. 

It  was  the  especial  charm  of  these  con- 
versations to  Alice  that  she  could  talk  so 
fearlessly  to  this  grave,  almost  austere  man, 
whom  most  of  the  children  looked  upon 
with  awe ;  he  and  she  were  boon  compan- 


160  <XNT    A    PEDESTAL 

ions.  Perhaps  she  divined  that  to  a  man 
with  his  broad  shoulders,  quick  motions,  and 
the  easy  physical  grace  of  the  trained  ath- 
lete, cowardice  was  not  a  sensitive  subject. 

He  went  on  to  answer  her  question 
thoughtfully.  "  I  don't  know  that  I  ever 
did  run  away,"  he  said,  "  but  there  are 
many  circumstances  under  which  that 
would  be  the  wisest  thing  to  do,  and  if  it 
seemed  the  wisest  thing  I  should  do  it. 
Wait;  I  do  remember  running  away  once." 

"  Tell  me  about  it,"  cried  Alice,  clap- 
ping her  hands. 

"  When  I  was  six  or  seven  years  old  I 
spent  a  week  at  Milford,  New  Hampshire, 
visiting  an  aunt  there.  Most  of  the  time  I 
was  with  a  cropped-headed  boy  a  year  or 
two  older  and  several  times  as  knowing. 
We  had  been  wading  in  the  shallows  of  the 
river  one  afternoon  and  were  on  our  way 


0^    A    PEDESTAL  161 

home  when  a  wagon  passed  us  in  which  were 
two  men.  To  my  astonishment  my  com- 
panion picked  up  a  stone  and  threw  it  after 
the  wagon,  hitting  one  of  the  men;  and  to 
my  consternation  this  man  stopped  the 
wagon  and  came  running  toward  us  with  a 
horsewhip.  There  did  not  seem  any  ques- 
tion what  it  was  wise  for  me  to  do  then, 
and  I  started  to  run.  But  the  other  boy 
called  out  disdainfully,  '  What  are  you  run- 
ning for  ?  Stay  here  and  face  him  down.' 
I  turned  around,  thinking  I  must  stand  by 
my  companion,  silly  as  he  was;  but  sure 
enough  that  little  scamp  stood  there  in  the 
road,  another  stone  in  his  hand,  and  threat- 
ened if  I  remember  aright  to  gouge  out  the 
man's  eyes  if  he  came  near.  He  was  so 
determined  and  so  fearless  that  finally  the 
man  turned  around  and  went  back  to  his 
wagon,  and  did  not  heed  the  second  stone 


162  OK    A    PEDESTAL 

that  my  companion  threw  at  him  as  he  drove 
away.  My  companion  called  me  a  coward 
to  start  to  run;  do  you  think  I  was  ?  " 

"  Not  to  stay  there,  a  little  boy,  when  a 
great  big  man  was  coming  after  you  with  a 
horsewhip  ?  No,  I  think  you  ought  to  run 
away." 

"  But  as  it  turned  out,  there  was  no 
danger." 

"  But  suppose  the  man  hadn't  been  afraid 
of  the  cropped-headed  boy's  second  stone  ?  " 

"  That's  just  it;  most  men  who  came 
back  with  the  horsewhip  would  have  used 
it,  so  my  action  was  wise  under  the  condi- 
tions. But  I  have  nothing  of  the  bravado 
of  that  cropped-headed  boy.  Danger  does 
not  necessarily  prevent  my  doing  a  thing, 
but  before  doing  it  I  try  to  measure  the 
danger  there  is  in  it." 

"  Have  you  ever  been  in  real  danger  ?  " 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  163 

"Yes;  I  was  once  where  the  chances 
were  very  much  against  my  getting  out 
.alive." 

"  Tell  me  about  it." 

"  This  was  in  Germany.  I  had  planned 
to  spend  the  night  at  a  hotel  near  a  water- 
fall and  had  sent  my  baggage  ahead.  I 
came  up  the  lake  on  the  steamer  just  at 
dusk,  and  got  off  alone  where  the  stream 
from  the  waterfall  flowed  into  the  lake.  I 
followed  the  stream  up  and  sat  an  hour  or 
more  enjoying  the  cascade.  When  I  was 
ready  to  go  to  the  hotel  I  could  not  find  the 
path,  it  was  so  dark.  After  hunting  awhile 
in  vain,  I  looked  at  the  walls  of  the  ravine. 
The  rock  was  of  soft  shale  that  could  be 
picked  apart,  and  I  decided  I  could  climb 
up.  I  got  up  half  way  easily  enough,  but 
the  rock  grew  harder  and  I  saw  it  was 
doubtful  whether  I  could  reach  the  top. 


164  OK    A    PEDESTAL 

It  was  impossible  to  climb  back  down;  I 
had  climbed  up  by  picking  out  pieces  of 
shale  with  my  fingers  and  hanging  by  my 
fingers  and  toes;  one  can  go  up  that  way, 
but  not  down.  So  the  question  was  whether 
to  persist  in  what  seemed  the  hopeless  at- 
tempt to  get  to  the  top,  or  to  drop  before 
going  higher,  and  while  I  could  protect 
myself  as  much  as  possible  by  choosing  my 
time  to  fall." 

"  How  awful  it  must  have  been,"  shud- 
dered Alice,  grasping  his  hand  in  both  of 
hers. 

"  Finally  I  decided  that  to  fall  so  far 
would  probably  be  fatal,  and  certainly  would 
break  one  or  more  limbs,  with  which  I 
should  have  to  lie  till  morning,  so  that  I 
might  as  well  go  on  and  take  what  little 
chance  there  was.  And  I  actually  did  reach 


ON"    A    PEDESTAL  165 

the  top,  though  not  till  long  after  mid- 
night." 

"  Clinging  by  your  fingers  and  toes  ?  " 

"  Yes,  with  my  elbows  bent  in  tense  rig- 
idity. For  an  hour  after  I  decided  to  go 
ahead  it  seemed  hopeless,  and  I  was  only 
doggedly  persistent.  Then  I  began  to  think 
1  might  possibly  reach  the  top;  presently  I 
could  see  the  top,  and  then  I  knew  I  still 
had  strength  to  get  there.  It  is  a  great 
moment,  that  in  which  you  are  for  the  first 
time  sure  you  shall  succeed.  I  have  had  it 
several  times  in  my  life." 

"  Tell  me  about  them." 

"  Why,  onge,  when  I  was  a  sophomore 
in  college,  as  we  came  out  of  breakfast  to 
go  to  chapel  we  saw  hanging  between  the 
towers  of  the  library  a  blue  flag  with  the 
number  of  the  freshman  class  over  a  white 
with  the  number  of  our  class.  I  let 


166  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

the  rest  go  into  chapel,  and  then  I  took  off 
my  shoes  and  climbed  the  library  wall  by 
the  lightning  rod,  and  when  the  freshmen 
came  out  of  chapel  they  saw  the  flags  hang- 
ing out  of  my  room,  reversed.  I  had  never 
climbed  a  lightning  rod  before,  and  was  not 
sure  I  could  do  it,  but  when  I  reached  the 
cornice  and  saw  how  the  rod  went  around 
it  I  knew  the  flags  were  mine." 

"  How  brave  you  must  be." 

"  That  is  one  kind  of  courage;  it  isn't  a 
bit  that  of  the  cropped-headed  boy.  It 
isn't  equal  to  the  courage  you  showed  when 
you  told  me  how  far  I  had  to  drop." 

"  Courage  ?  Me  ?  Why,  I  am  the  big- 
gest coward  in  the  world.  I  couldn't  climb 
into  a  grocery  wagon." 

"  Nevertheless,  when  you  were  on  the 
point  of  fainting  away  with  pain  you 
thought  of  me  instead  of  yourself;  there 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  167 

is  no  greater  courage  than  that.  You  have 
the  possibilities  of  magnificent  woman- 
hood." 

"  Do  you  really  think  so  ?  "  asked  the 
child,  wistfully;  "  I  should  so  like  to  believe 
it.  You  remember  telling  me  once  about 
the  woman  of  whom  it  was  said  that  to 
know  her  was  a  liberal  education.  I  should 
like  to  be  like  that.  Of  course  I  couldn't 
be  a  a  great  woman,  like  her,  but  I  should 
like  to  be  that  kind  of  a  woman,  so  true 
and  helpful  that  those  about  me  would 
want  to  do  their  best.  It  seems  so  much 
more  to  inspire  others  to  do  things  than  to 
do  them  one's  self." 

"  You  are  an  inspiration  already,  my 
child,"  said  Mr.  Armstrong  gravely.  "  You 
have  made  my  life  very  different  to  me.  I 
was  not  happy  or  hopeful  when  I  began  to 
come  here  evenings,  but  now  I  am  both." 


168  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

"  Eeally  ?  "   cried    Alice,    pressing    his 
hand  to  her  lips;  "  it  does  not  seem  possi- 
ble; but  0  how  happy  you  make  me." 
V 

At  this  point  Dr.  Lyndon  appeared.  "  I 
have  been  eavesdropping,"  she  said,  "  but 
I  felt  sure  you  would  not  object.  It  helps 
me  to  know  there  are  such  men,  and  girls 
who  will  be  such  women.  No,  don't  go, 
Mr.  Armstrong.  I  have  only  two  or  three 
inquiries  to  make  and  a  direction  or  two  to 
give,  and  then  I  will  go  with  you.  Our  lit- 
tle patient  is  getting  on  famously ;  she  will 
not  have  a  trace  left  of  her  accident." 

"  How  that  child  loves  you,"  remarked 
Dr.  Lyndoa,  almost  enviously,  as  they 
walked  out  of  the  house  together. 

"  Love  seems  worth  while  to  you,  doesn't 
it  ?  "  replied  Mr.  Armstrong. 

"  It  seems  about  the  only  thing  on  earth 


OX    A    PEDESTAL  169 

worth  while,"  said  Dr.  Lyndon;  "  all  the 
rest  is  subsidiary  to  it." 

"  Yet  I  am  thirty-five  years  old,  and  it  is 
the  first  time  that  I  ever  experienced  it." 
"  How  can  that  be  possible  ?  " 
"  Easily.  I  lost  my  parents  before  I  was 
old  enough  to  know  them.  I  was  brought 
up  by  a  second  cousin,  who  took  me  from 
a  sense  of  duty — you  know  what  that 
means.  From  eight  to  sixteen  I  was  bound 
out  to  a  Vermont  farmer  who  saw  in  me  as 
he  saw  in  his  hired  men,  his  cattle,  his  wife, 
and  himself,  only  something  out  of  which 
the  utmost  possible  amount  of  work  must 
be  wrong." 

"  How  did  you  get  your  education  ?  " 
"  This  man  leased  the  farm  of  the  widow 
of  a  physician,  some  of  whose  miscellane- 
ous books  were  left  on  the  top  shelves  of 
closets.     I    devoured   them.     I   remember 


170  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

carrying  around  pocket  editions  of  Pope's 
Iliad  and  an  abridged  Blair's  Ehetoric,  and 
reading  them  while  the  oxen  rested  at  plow- 
ing. 

"  I  was  allowed  to  go  to  school  winters 
and  I  learned  rapidly.  I  completed  Eobin- 
son's  Elementary  algebra  in  a  term.  Schools 
were  not  graded  then,  and  one  who  could 
go  fast  had  the  opportunity. 

"  When  my  time  on  the  farm  was  up  I 
worked  in  a  blacksmith's  shop,  earned 
wages  enough  to  spend  a  year  in  a  good 
academy,  and  got  into  college  as  young  as 
most  boys.  I  worked  my  way  through  by 
tutoring  and  teaching." 

"  And  in  all  this  time  you  made  no 
friends  ?  " 

"  0  yes,  I  have  always  found  people 
friendly  to  me;  some  people  have  done 
a  great  deal  for  me.  But  such  love  as  lights 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  171 

up  little  Alice's  eyes  when  I  come  I  have 
never  awakened  in  any  eyes  before. — And 
yet,"  he  added,  hesitatingly,  "  I  was  once 
engaged  to  be  married." 

"  Tell  me  about  it,"  said  Dr.  Lyndon. 
She  asked  it  deliberately,  though  she  knew 
she  was  on  ground  where  angels  fear  to 
tread. 

"  I  never  have  told  anybody,"  he  said 
slowly,  "  and  yet  I  feel  inclined  to  tell  you. 
I  don't  know  why  I  am  in  the  mood  to  talk 
about  myself  to-night,  but  I  am  going  to 
tell  you  about  her;  I  should  like  to  get  the 
woman's  point  of  view." 

They  had  reached  Dr.  Lyndon's  resi- 
dence, a  little  house  she  had  recently  pur- 
chased, with  a  considerable  front  yard. 
There  was  a  large,  low  tree,  under  which 
there  was  a  bench,  and  on  this  Dr.  Lyndon. 


172  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

and  Mr.  Armstrong  seated  themselves  in 
the  soft  June  moonlight. 

"  You  will  easily  see  that  in  school  and 
college  I  had  no  time  for  social  diversion, 
even  if  I  had  had  clothes  or  manners  or 
introduction.  In  five  years  I  hardly  varied 
from  bed  at  ten,  up  at  five,  and  every  hour 
of  the  seventeen  used  to  what  seemed  to  be 
the  best  possible  advantage. 

"  The  first  term  I  was  a  principal,  by  an 
unexpected  change  of  teachers  I  was  obliged 
to  take  the  chemistry.  I  knew  little  about 
it;  the  few  honors  I  had  won  in  college 
had  been  in  mathematics  and  language. 
But  when  I  began  really  to  study  chemistry 
it  fascinated  me.  My  boys  and  girls  worked 
with  me  after  school  and  on  Saturdays, 
and  I  gave  it  nearly  all  my  waking  hours. 

"  I  had  not  found  a  satisfactory  book  of 
experiments,  and  I  compiled  one  from  our 


OK    A    PEDESTAL  173 

work  in  the  class.  It  was  published,  and 
it  pleased  some  teachers. 

"  One  day  a  man  walked  into  school,  and 
staid  all  the  afternoon,  going  into  my  classes 
and  even  remaining  to  see  our  work  after 
hours.  When  the  children  had  gone  home, 
at  nearly  six  o'clock,  he  told  me  he  was 
president  of  Boylford  college,  and  invited 
me  to  become  professor  of  chemistry  there. 

" 1  found  the  equipment  there  wholly  in- 
adequate, but  I  interested  the  students  and 
finally  got  the  attention  of  Mr.  Bolyford, 
after  whom  the  college  was  named,  and 
who  provided  most  of  the  funds.  He  used 
to  drop  into  recitations  occasionally,  and 
one  day  he  said,  '  Armstrong,  I  am  going  to 
give  you  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  a 
laboratory.'  He  did  it,  and  he  practically 
left  everything  to  me ;  so  I  was  a  busy  man. 

"  Still   there    were   social    obligations   I 


174  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

could  not  escape.  All  the  professors  were 
expected  to  attend  certain  functions,  and 
when  I  had  to  go  I  went  and  did  the  best 
I  could. 

"  There  was  one  house  to  which  I  grew 
rather  to  like  to  go.  Mrs.  Andrews  had  a 
way  of  making  one  feel  whenever  he  entered 
that  he  was  just  the  one  man  she  had  want- 
ed to  have  come  in.  Awkward  and  clumsy 
as  I  was,  she  made  me  feel  at  home  and  at 
my  ease.  I  even  learned  to  drop  in  to  meals 
uninvited,  and  found  myself  always  more 
than  welcome. 

"  When  the  president  died  suddenly  in 
the  middle  of  the  year  I  was  elected  in  his 
place.  It  was  an  unreasonable  choice,  of 
course,  but  Mr.  Boylford  had  taken  a^fancy 
to  me,  he  wanted  me,  and  his  word  was  law. 

"  If  I  had  been  welcome  at  the  Andrews' 
before  I  was  indispensable  now.  There 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  175 

was  something  to  bring  me  there  nearly 
every  day,  a  place  was  always  left  for  me  at 
the  table,  I  was  included  in  all  family 
parties. 

"  When  we  went  anywhere,  Mrs.  An- 
drews naturally  took  her  husband's  arm, 
and  their  daughter  Cora  took  mine.  I  have 
not  mentioned  her  before,  and  she  was  no 
more  prominent  in  my  thoughts.  She  was 
a  part  of  the  family,  as  her  father  was,  but 
such  personal  interest  as  I  had  was  in  Mrs. 
Andrews,  whom  I  considered  a  charming 
woman,  and  to  whom  I  felt  grateful. 

"  One  day  the  wife  of  an  older  professor 
asked  me,  it  seemed  with  a  touch  of  malice, 
'  When  does  it  come  off  ?  ' 

"  '  What?' 

"  '  Your  marriage  with  Cora  Andrews.' 

"  '  Why  should  you  think  it  is  coming 
off?' 


176  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

"  '  I  heard  Mrs.  Andrews  say  the  date 
was  not  yet  fixed.' 

"  *  Then  I  can't  name  it.' 

"  I  laughed  lightly  as  I  turned  away,  de- 
termined she  should  discover  nothing  to 
gratify  her  curiosity;  but  naturally  it  set 
me  thinking. 

"  I  had  never  looked  upon  myself  as  a 
marriageable  man.  Until  I  became  presi- 
dent there  had  been  no  possibility  of  it, 
and  since  then  I  had  been  so  occupied  with 
other  things  that  the  matter  had  not  oc- 
curred to  me.  But  I  was  now  a  fairly  eligi- 
ble husband  for  a  girl  who,  like  Miss  An- 
drews, would  have  plenty  of  money  of  her 
own,  and  whose  mother  had  always  preferred 
the  college  set. 

"  Was  the  mother  really  looking  upon  me 
as  a  prospective  son-in-law  ?  That  would 
account  for  her  interest  in  me;  for  the 


ON"    A    PEDESTAL  177 

thousand  little  hints  she  had  given  me  so 
tactfully,  as  well  as  for  the  hospitality  she 
had  lavished  on  me.  Yes,  that  was  possi- 
ble; I  felt  sure  she  would  not  object. 

"  But  Cora,  did  she  expect  it  ?  There 
had  never  been  a  word  or  a  hint  of  affection 
between  us.  We  had  been  companions  be- 
cause we  had  been  thrown  together,  but  I 
had  never  felt  particular  interest  in  her, 
nor  had  she  manifested  any  in  me.  And 
yet  if  her  mother  expected  it,  she  must 
know  of  it;  probably  was  not  averse  to  it. 
Perhaps  she  even — .  To  be  sure  there  was 
nothing  to  show  it,  but  as  a  modest  girl  she 
would  in  any  event  wait  for  me  to  take  the 
initiative. 

"  Suppose  both  did  want  it,  did  I  want 
it  ?  I  shouldn't  have  known  that  I  did, 
but  when  the  possibility  presented  itself 
there  was  much  that  appealed  to  me.  I 


178  OK    A    PEDESTAL 

realized  that  one  side  of  my  nature  was  un- 
developed; my  intellect  had  been  exercised 
and  sharpened  at  the  expense  of  my  heart.  I 
could  afford  to  relax  the  culture  of  the  one, 
and  yield  to  the  demands  of  the  other. 

"  And  if  I  were  to  marry,  how  could  I 
hope  to  be  more  fortunate  ?  If  I  had  not 
seen  superlative  excellencies  in  Cora,  at 
least  I  had  discovered  no  faults, and  very  like- 
ly I  should  find  her  virtues  had  been  merely 
overlooked.  Her  father  I  had  always  met 
pleasantly  enough,  and  her  mother  was  the 
best  friend  I  had  ever  had.  Yes,  if  Cora's 
hand  was  to  be  had  for  the  asking,  it  would 
be  more  than  I  had  hoped  for  myself. 

"  You  wonder  at  the  crudeness  of  all  this 
calculation,  but  remember  I  had  never  had 
time  for  love-dreams.  The  ordinary  boy  of 
fourteen  is  more  experienced  in  the  emo- 
tions of  the  heart  than  I  was. 


OK    A    PEDESTAL  179 

"  The  more  I  thought  of  it,  the  more  de- 
sirable it  seemed,  and  the  more  I  determined 
to  ascertain  at  once  whether  I  could  depend 
on  the  information  I  had  received. 

"  That  night  the  family  and  I  went  for  a 
boat-ride  on  the  lake.  I  looked  at  them 
from  the  new  view-point,  and  concluded 
the  chance  was  worth  the  attempt.  When 
we  reached  home  the  father  and  mother 
walked  ahead  as  usual,  and  Cora  and  I  fol- 
lowed slowly  in  the  winding  path  through 
the  grounds.  Before  we  reached  the  house 
I  stopped  her  under  a  tree  not  unlike  this — 
the  night  was  not  unlike  this ;  perhaps  that 
is  what  has  so  brought  it  back  to  me, — and 
I  said: 

"  l  Cora,  I  have  been  hoping  something.' 

"  *  What  ?  '  she  asked.  She  did  not  meet 
my  eyes;  I  felt  sure  she  knew  what  was 
coming. 


180  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

"  *  That  you  will  be  my  wife.  Will  you  ?r 

"  'Yes,'  she  said;  and  when  I  drew  her  to 
me  she  dropped  her  head  upon  my  shoulder. 

"  The  parents  were  waiting  inside,  and 
when  I  told  them  of  our  engagement  Mr. 
Andrews  shook  my  hand  warmly  and  Mrs. 
Andrews  kissed  me. 

"  This  was  in  October.  The  rest  of  the 
year  I  was  much  at  the  house,  and  I  grew 
passionately  in  love  with  Cora.  I  presume 
few  young  lovers  are  as  foolishly  fond  as  I 
was ;  I  used  even  to  write  verses.  My  affec- 
tions had  lain  fallow  all  these  years,  and 
when  the  harvest  came  it  was  abundant. 
Cora  became  my  ideal  woman ;  all  that  I 
could  imagine  of  beauty  and  grace  and 
charm  and  virtue  I  hung  upon  her  like  gar- 
ments upon  a  model.  My  inner  thoughts, 
my  dearest  desires,  hopes  I  had  hardly 
whispered  to  myself,  I  loved  to  tell  her.  She 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  181 

told  me  little  in  return,  but  I  supposed  her 
life  was  the  white  sheet  on  which  I  was  to 
write. 

"  We  were  to  be  married  in  July,  and  to 
sail  for  Europe.  The  last  of  June  a  crisis 
came  in  the  college.  I  expelled  a  senior  for 
unpardonable  dissoluteness.  He  appealed 
to  the  trustees.  To  my  astonishment  Mr. 
Boylford  turned  against  me;  the  fellow  was 
restored  to  college  without  even  an  apology. 

"  Of  course  I  resigned,  to  take  effect  im- 
mediately, and  I  hurried  from  the  meeting 
to  the  Andrews'.  How  glad  I  was  in  this 
blighting  of  my  career  to  have  love  to  fall 
back  on.  I  knew  Cora  would  fully  justify 
me,  for  she  always  agreed  with  me.  In  her 
faithful  arms  I  should  forget  how  treacher- 
ous is  the  favor  of  man. 

"  As  I  went  up  the  path  I  caught  a 
glimpse  of  her  white  gown  in  the  arbor.  I 


182  ON    A     PEDESTAL 

tiptoed  softly  on  the  grass  so  as  to  surprise 
her,  as  I  dearly  loved  to  do,  and  I  came  up- 
on her  before  she  heard  me." 

Mr.  Armstrong  paused;  it  was  some  time 
before  he  went  on,  and  his  voice  was  almost 
inaudible. 

"  I  can  hardly  tell  you  what  I  saw.  The- 
expelled  student  was  there,  his  arm  around 
her  waist,  his  lips  pressed  to  hers. 

"  '  Cora!  '  I  exclaimed. 

"  She  turned  upon  me  like  a  tigress. 

"  '  I  am  glad  you  found  me,'  she  cried; 
4 1  am  sick  and  tired  of  this  double,  life.  I 
have  honestly  tried  to  gratify  mamma's  am- 
bition, but  I  loved  this  man  long  before  I 
ever  saw  you,  and  you  I  detest,  1  abhor,  I 
hate.  If  you  had  not  been  blind  as  a  bat, 
stupid  as  an  owl,  you  would  have  seen  that 
I  never  gave  you  a  spontaneous  caress  or 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  183 

word  or  look.     I  have  simply  endured  you. 
Thank  God,  it  is  over.' 

"  I  was  too  astounded  to  speak.  There 
was  a  real  woman  there,  after  all ;  not  such 
a  woman  as  I  had  imagined,  hut  a  woman 
of  much  more  character,  in  some  respects 
more  admirable.  There  was  no  question 
of  her  sincerity,  or  of  the  hopelessness  not 
only  of  reclaiming  her  if  I  had  desired,  but 
of  preventing  her  marriage  to  this  worthless 
fellow.  I  could  only  lift  my  hat  and  retire, 
which  I  did  without  a  word. 

"  I  went  to  my  study,  packed  my  most 
important  books  and  papers,  left  written 
directions  for  the  rest,  and  took  the  next 
train  for  New  York.  I'  could  not  endure 
to  speak  to  a  person.  I  sailed  for  Europe 
by  the  first  steamer,  and  I  staid  there  until 
I  came  here.  Now  you  see  what  I  meant 
when  I  said  I  had  never  known  love.  If 


184  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

even  a  child  like  Alice  had  really  loved  me, 
I  should  have  known  that  Cora  detested 
me." 

Dr.  Lyndon  was  silent  for  a  time.  Then 
she  asked: 

"  Did  Cora  marry  the  student  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  I  have  not  heard  a  word 
from  Boylford  from  that  day  to  this." 

"  You  are  implacable.  Did  not  Mrs. 
Andrews  deserve  better  of  you  ?  " 

"  I  blame  Mrs.  Andrews  far  more  than 
her  daughter;  all  the  while  that  Cora  was 
protesting  against  enduring  me,  her  mother 
was  assuring  me  how  deep  her  daughter's 
love  was." 

"  What  do  you  suppose  Boylford  thinks 
of  you  ?  " 

"It  is  immaterial;  Boylford  is  to  me  a 
closed  book." 

"  You  do  yourself  injustice.     You  were 


OK    A    PEDESTAL  185 

not  at  fault  for  anything  that  happened; 
you  have  no  right  to  allow  yourself  to  be 
misjudged.  Didn't  the  matter  get  into  the 
newspapers  ?  " 

"  Yes;  the  school  agency  man  at  Ipswich 
had  an  envelope  full  of  clippings;  he  identi- 
fied me  by  one  of  their  horrible  woodcuts;  " 
and  Mr.  Armstrong  smiled  grimly. 

"  When  I  got  to  Chicago  I  bought  the 
Tribune.  It  gave  so  much  space  to  it  that 
I  bought  all  the  other  morning  journals. 
The  Chromeyellow  gave  it  the  first  page. 
Across  the  top  in  thick  red  letters  four 
inches  tall,  the  article  was  headed  '  DOUB- 
LY DEFEATED  '.  Then  below,  in  black 
letters  half  as  high,  '  A  College  President 
Loses  his  Position  and  his  Bride  '.  Under 
that,  '  Young  Blood  Triumphs,  and  the 
College  Town  Rejoices  '.  Then  came, 

"  '  By  telegraph  to  the  Chromeyellow. 


186  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

"  (  Yesterday  Kalph  Armstrong  was  the 
most  envied  man  in  Kansas.  He  was  presi- 
dent of  its  most  successful  college,  he  was 
to  marry  within  a  fortnight  one  of  its  love- 
liest maidens,  daughter  of  one  of  its  wealthi- 
est residents,  and  he  was  to  sail  immediately 
for  a  luxurious  wedding  trip  to  Europe. 

"  '  To-day  Ralph  Armstrong  is  a  home- 
less, friendless  wanderer. 

"<  What  did  it? 

"  '  Ralph  Armstrong's  insatiable  revenge 
against  a  lover  whom  he  had  already  robbed 
of  his  mistress.'  And  so  on." 

"And  you  made  no  effort  to  refute  this  ?  " 

"  What  would  you  have  me  do  ?  Emu- 
late the  man  who  puts  in  cards  like  this : 
c  The  John  Smith  who  was  arrested  last 
night  for  drunkenness  and  beating  his  wife 
is  not  the  John  Smith  who  is  pastor  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  church  ?  '  " 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  187 

"  No,  but  a  plain  statement  of  facts  of 
the  case  might  be  published,  which  would 
leave  the  real  truth  on  record." 

"  There  is  nothing  published  as  to  my  re- 
signation that  is  necessarily  harmful  to  my 
reputation.  My  motives  are  misrepresent- 
ed, but  people  know  how  to  make  allowances 
for  that.  Mr.  Appleton,  of  Ipswich,  who 
had  read  the  accounts  in  an  unprejudiced 
way,  just  to  get  at  the  facts,  told  me  as  his 
first  impression  that  he  though  I  was  in  the 
right.  As  to  the  engagement,  of  course  I 
could  not  say  a  word  about  that." 

"  What  are  your  plans  for  next  year  ?  " 

"  I  have  thought  I  would  ask  Mr.  Apple- 
ton  to  find  me  some  place  where  I  can  teach 
chemistry;  I  know  I  can  do  that  work  well." 

"  Why  not  go  back  to  your  own  labora- 
tory at  Boylford  ?  " 


188  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

"  Impossible.  I  gave  up  Boylford  of  my 
own  accord;  it  is  a  closed  chapter." 

"  Wouldn't  you  go  back  to  it  if  you  were 
invited  ?  " 

"  Not  unless  it  was  admitted  that  I  was 
right  in  expelling  the  boy." 

"  Why  don't  you  find  out  what  the  feel- 
ing is  there  ?  " 

"  Why  should  I  make  inquiries  ?  I  came 
away;  if  they  want  me  again  they  must 
send  for  me." 

"  The  trouble  with  you,"  said  Dr.  Lyn- 
don impatiently,  "  is  that  you  live  on  a  ped- 
estal. There  you  sit  with  your  arms  folded 
like  an  Egyptian  god,  and  if  people  want  to 
communicate  with  you  they  must  come  to 
you.  Why  shouldn't  you  climb  down  off 
your  perch  and  look  up  other  people  ? 
Everybody  must  make  the  advances  to  you, 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  189 

so  you  are  limited  to  those  who  happen  to 
take  a  fancy  to  make  those  advances." 

She  had  not  meant  to  speak  at  this  time, 
but  now  that  she  was  started  her  vehemence 
ran  away  with  her,  and  she  went  on:  "  Out 
of  the  five  hundred  children  in  school  you 
have  formed  an  intimate  friendship  with 
Alice  Manchester.  Why  ?  Because  you 
selected  her?  No;  because  she  selected 
you ;  when  she  came  out  of  her  unconscious- 
ness she  showed  recognition  of  you  and  you 
responded.  She  is  a  lovely  child,  but  if 
she  had  not  especially  noticed  you,  she 
would  have  been  nothing  to  you.  She 
made  the  choice,  not  you.  You  would  not 
have  a  bowing  acquaintance  with  me  if  I 
had  not  forced  myself  upon  you.  Why  did 
you  once  become  engaged  to  a  girl  you  had 
hardly  observed  ?  Because  some  meddling 
woman  told  you  her  mother  was  making  the 


190  OST    A    PEDESTAL 

match.  Finding  it  was  all  arranged  for 
you,  you  obediently  let  yourself  be  led  by 
the  nose  into  a  halter  prepared  for  you. 
You  are  old  enough  and  wise  enough  to 
make  your  own  choice  of  companions,  but 
you  can't  do  it  till  you  come  down  off  your 
pedestal  and  make  advances,  like  other  peo- 
ple. You  think  it  is  pride  that  makes  you 
hold  back;  it  isn't;  it  is  bad  manners. 
People  think  you  are  haughty;  I  know  bet- 
ter; you  are  simply  shy." 

"  You  do  not  seem  especially  shy,"  re- 
plied Mr.  Armstrong,  not  without  resent- 
ment. 

Tears  came  into  Dr.  Lyndon's  eyes.  "  Do 
you  think  I  want  to  say  these  things  ?  "  she 
cried;  "  don't  you  suppose  I  know  that  it 
will  make  you  hate  me  ?  But  I  can't  sec 
you  wasting  your  great  chances  in  life 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  191 

through  such  a  mistaken  notion  of  dealing 
with  people." 

"  Faithful  are  the  wounds  of  a  friend," 
replied  Mr.  Armstrong,  offering  his  hand. 
"  I  will  think  over  what  you  have  said; 
I  have  no  doubt  there  is  a  good  deal  of 
truth  in  it;  I  know  it  was  brave  and  kind 
of  you  to  say  it.  I  cannot  model  myself  on 
anyone  else.  I  know  I  am  gnarled  and 
twisted  and  unformed,  but  I  grew  up  in  the 
field,  and  I  must  remain  what  I  was  planted. 
I  may  get  a  little  pruning  here,  a  little 
grafting  there,  but  I  shall  always  be  the 
same  tree.  I  wish  for  your  sake  I  were 
more  comely." 

And  he  went  home  disconsolate.  She 
looked  up  an  old  catalogue  and  wrote  a 
letter. 


192  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

VI 

WINCHENDON,  S".  Y.,  June  15,  1901. 
My  dear  Jenny : — 

I  was  looking  over  our  catalogue  to-day, 
and  when  I  reached  your  name  my  heart 
reproached  me  that  I  had  not  heard  from 
you  in  so  long.  I  remember  hearing  that 
you  went  to  Palestine  to  practice  and  I  pre- 
sume you  are  there  now,  so  I  will  address 
you  there.  I  hope  you  have  the  biggest 
practice  and  the  best  pay  in  town. 

Do  tell  me  about  yourself.  You  know 
how  we  used  to  imagine  our  futures  together. 
You  always  insisted  that  while  you  were 
providentially  foreordained  to  be  an  old 
maid,  and  therefore  sure  of  eventual  suc- 
cess, I  should  be  picked  up  by  some  adoring 
swain  before  my  shingle  had  been  up  a 
month.  But  you  were  wrong ;  I  have  been 
here  five  years  now  and  nobody  has  so  much 
as  hinted  of  love  to  me.  And  I  have  built 
up  something  of  a  practice ;  enough  so  that 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  193 

I  have  dared  to  buy  a  comfortable  little 
house  of  my  own.  There  is  a  mortgage  on 
it  bigger  than  the  piazza,  but  I  can  take 
care  of  that. 

Now  do  write  and  tell  me  all  about  your- 
self;  write  on  receipt  of  this,  before  the 
warmth  of  old  times  it  recalls  has  worn  off. 
And  think  of  me  as  still 

Your  friend  and  classmate, 

ELIZABETH  LYNDON. 

P.  S.  The  principal  of  the  high  school 
here  used  to  be  president  of  Boylford  col- 
lege, near  you.  Do  you  know  how  he  came 
to  go  away  ? — E.  L. 


PALESTINE,  Ks.,  June  17,  1901. 
My  dear  Betty: — 

I  will  answer  your  letter  before  I  lay  it 
aside,  for  it  is  just  dear  of  you  to  write. 
I  am  so  glad  to  hear  from  you.  It  brings 
the  old  days  right  back,  as  if  we  were  dis- 
secting together  again  in  the  old  south  room. 


194  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

Your  letter  got  to  me,  although  it  was 
not  addressed  to  me.  The  truth  is,  Betty 
dear,  I  am  no  longer  a  physician  or  a  Miss. 
I  started  out  bravely  enough,  but  I  met  a 
good  many  discouragements,  and  when  the 
best  man  in  the  world  told  me  the  one  thing 
he  wanted  was  to  bear  half  my  burdens^  I 
straightway  dumped  them  all  upon  his 
broad  shoulders  and  have  been  absurdly 
happy  ever  since. 

I  really  can't  imagine  why  you  have  not 
gone  and  done  likewise.  If  I  had  one-half 
of  your  beauty  or  your  charm  I  should 
never  have  thought  of  a  profession.  To  be 
perfectly  frank,  I  went  into  medicine  be- 
cause I  didn't  believe  any  man  would  marry 
me  with  my  snub  nose.  But  my  husband 
says  he  wouldn't  change  it,  and  honestly  I 
don't  believe  he  would. 

As  to  Boylford  college,  my  husband  is 
one  of  the  trustees,  so  I  know  all  about 
that.  The  Mr.  Armstrong  you  mention 


Otf    A    PEDESTAL  195 

was  president  there,  and  resigned  because 
he  was  over-ruled  in  a  matter  of  discipline. 
People  generally  sustain  him  in  that,  but 
he  did  one  shabby  thing;  he  was  engaged  to 
a  girl,  and  went  away  without  so  much  as 
saying  good-bye  to  her.  It  piqued  her,  of 
course,  and  she  ran  away  with  the  very 
student  Mr.  Armstrong  had  expelled.  The 
parents  forgave  them  and  took  them  home 
to  live,  but  he  proved  utterly  worthless. 

Among  other  things  he  used  to  make 
preposterous  demands  for  money,  threaten- 
ing all  kinds  of  unmanly  things  if  he  was 
refused.  Finally  he  forged  Mr.  Boylford's 
endorsement  to  a  note  for  $1,500.  Mr. 
Boylford  paid  the  note,  thinking  her  father 
would  settle  it  rather  than  have  the  man 
disgraced;  but  instead  her  father  said  he 
was  only  too  glad  to  have  the  fellow  locked 
up  where  he  could  do  no  more  mischief. 
So  the  husband  is  in  state  prison,  while 
the  wife  and  her  parents  have  gone  to 


196  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

Europe  to  live.  Cora  is  said  to  be  quite  a 
belle  in  the  English  colony  at  Dresden.  I 
believe  she  poses  as  an  American  widow.  It 
is  understood  that  she  has  secured  a  divorce. 

For  this  unhappy  marriage  Mr.  Arm- 
strong is  of  course  largely  responsible,  but 
apart  from  that  I  think  the  feeling  is  friend- 
ly toward  him.  Certainly  he  was  the  best 
president  the  college  has  ever  had,  and 
since  he  went  away  things  have  gone  from 
bad  to  worse.  The  present  man  is  an  utter 
failure,  and  the  trustees  are  to  elect  a  new 
president  next  week.  They  have  decided 
on  a  local  clergyman,  not  because  he  is  the 
right  man,  but  because  he  seems  the  most 
available. 

But  [  am  writing  too  long  a  letter.  Now 
that  the  silence  is  broken,  do  let  us  hear 
often  from  one  another. 

Your  ever  loving  friend, 

JANE  HUTCHINSON. 

(Address  Mrs.  Reginald  Hutchinson.) 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  197 

WINCHESTDON,  KT.  Y.,  June  19,  1901. 
My  dear  Jane : — 

Thank  you  ever  so  much  for  answering 
so  promptly.  It  is  so  good  to  hear  from  you 
again,  and  that  you  are  happily  married.  I 
shall  hope  some  time  to  know  your  husband. 

As  to  the  college,  if  you  want  a  new 
president  and  if  Mr.  Armstrong  was  the 
best  president  you  ever  had,  why  don't  you 
get  him  back  ?  He  is  here  only  temporari- 
ly, and  is  looking  for  a  chair  of  chemistry 
somewhere.  But  though  he  strives  to  con- 
sider it  a  closed  chapter,  I  can  see  that  his 
heart  is  in  Boylford  college.  If  your  trus- 
tees know  he  was  right,  why  not  say  so  and 
invite  him  back  again  ? 

He  has  told  me  all  about  the  Cora  An- 
drews affair,  and  while  I  am  not  at  liberty  to 
reveal  what  he  said,  I  can  assure  you  that 
he  acted  generously  and  nobly.  He  found 
that  he  had  been  shamefully  deceived,  both 
by  the  girl  and  her  mother. 


198  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

I  really  hope  this  matter  can  be  brought 
about,  Jane.  It  means  a  good  deal  to  the 
man  and  to  the  college. 

Your  loving  friend, 

ELIZABETH  LYNDON. 


PALESTINE,  Ks.,  June  21,  1901. 
My  dear  Miss  Lyndon: — 

My  wife  has  read  me  your  letter  in  regard 
to  Mr.  Armstrong.  I  wish  as  much  as  you 
he  could  be  brought  back  here,  but  Mr. 
Boylford,  to  whom  the  college  owes  every- 
thing, is  a  difficult  man  to  deal  with.  He 
is  kind  and  generous  and  means  to  be  just, 
but  he  does  not  like  to  admit  he  has  been 
in  the  wrong.  Why  not  have  Mr.  Arm- 
strong come  out  here  ?  I  think  if  we  could 
bring  him  and  Mr.  Boylford  together  the 
matter  could  be  arranged.  Let  him  come 
as  my  guest;  we  shall  be  delighted  to  have 
him  here. 

Yours  most  sincerely, 

REGINALD  HUTCHINSON. 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  199 


.  Y.,  June  23,  1901. 
My  dear  Mr.  Hutehinson:  — 

I  fear  you  are  overestimating  my  influ- 
ence with  Mr.  Armstrong.  He  has  not 
made  me  his  confidante  in  this  matter;  I  am 
not  even  one  of  his  intimate  friends.  I 
happen  to  know  that  he  is  free  to  take  an- 
other place,  and  that  his  heart  used  to  be 
in  his  work  at  Boylford  to  an  extent  it  is 
not  likely  to  be  elsewhere.  It  seemed  to 
me  if  you  wanted  a  president  and  had 
already  found  Mr.  Armstrong  to  be  the 
right  man  it  would  be  a  pity  if  you  did 
not  get  together.  But  Mr.  Armstrong 
has  not  authorized  me  to  make  any  over- 
tures, and  he  would  never  dream  of  mak- 
ing overtures  himself.  He  gave  you  his 
best  work  and  you  discredited  him;  you 
trustees  were  in  the  wrong,  and  he  would 
expect  an  acknowledgment  from  you  as  the 
first  step  toward  a  return.  About  some 
things  he  is  absurdly  obstinate,  and  I  do 


200  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

not  think  he  would  be  absurd  to  be  obsti- 
nate about  this. 

Can't  you  persuade  Mr.  Boylford  to  make 
the  overtures  ?  He  has  more  at  stake  than 
Mr.  Armstrong,  for  the  right  president  of 
a  college  is  not  easily  found,  and  every- 
thing depends  upon  him.  Besides,  if  Mr. 
Boylford  means,  as  you  say,  to  be  a  just 
man,  and  has  been  in  the  wrong,  he  ought 
to  desire  to  make  the  matter  right. 

I  don't  think  I  am  arguing  this  matter 
very  well,  but  I  feel  deeply  anxious  that 
this  opportunity  may  not  be  lost;  it  is  not 
likely  to  recur. 

Most  sincerely  yours, 
ELIZABETH 


( Telegram) 

PALESTINE,  Ks.,  June  25,  1901. 
Elizabeth  Lyndon,  M.D. 

Winchendon,  N.  Y. 
Can  you  give  assurance  A.  would  accept 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  201 

under  conditions   named?     When  does  he 
leave  Winchendon  ? 

REGINALD  HUTCHINSON. 


(  Telegram) 

,  KT.  Y.,  June  25,  1901. 
Reginald  Hutchinson, 

Palestine,  Ks. 

Not  authorized  to  say  so  but  absolutely 
certain  he  would  accept.  Commencement 
twenty-seventh.  E.  L. 

VII 

The  Winchendon  commencement  passed 
off  pleasantly,  and  when  the  exercises  were 
over  Judge  Fellows  complimented  Mr. 
Armstrong  in  a  happy  little  speech  that  the 
audience  heartily  endorsed.  Before  the 
applause  had  subsided  a  stranger  arose  and 
asked,  "  May  I  say  a  word  ?  " 

He  was  manifestly  a  man  of  character 
and  position,  so  the  judge  assented,  without 


202  OK    A     PEDESTAL 

observing  the  start  Mr.  Armstrong  gave  at 
the  sound  of  the  stranger's  voice,  and  his 
slight  nod  of  recognition. 

"  My  name  is  Boylford,"  said  the  strang- 
er. "  You  don't  know  it  here,  but  there 
is  a  town  in  Kansas  named  after  me,  and  a 
college  that  we  think  pretty  well  of  out 
there.  Your  Mr.  Armstrong  here  was  presi- 
dent of  that  college  two  years  ago,  and  he 
was  the  best  president  the  college  ever  had. 
He  resigned  because  I  butted  in  on  a  mat- 
er of  discipline.  Now  when  a  man  makes 
a  fool  of  himself  he  can  do  one  of  two 
things, — own  up,  or  keep  on  being  a  fool. 

"  I  prefer  to  own  up ;  and  because  the  mat- 
ter got  into  the  newspapers  then  in  a  way 
that  wasn't  fair  to  him,  I  want  to  own  up 
publicly  that  he  was  right  and  I  was  wrong; 
the  boy  ought  to  have  been  expelled;  it 
would  have  been  better  for  him  as  well  as 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  203 

for  everybody  else  if  he  had  been  expelled. 
So  I  have  learned  a  lesson.  I  am  here  to 
invite  Mr.  Armstrong  to  return  to  us,  and 
to  promise  if  he  comes  back  there  won't  be 
any  more  interfering.  What  do  you  say, 
Mr.  Armstrong  ?  " 

When  the  applause  permitted,  Mr.  Arm- 
strong said:  "  You  can  hardly  expect  m& 
to  decide  so  important  a  matter  offhand, 
Mr.  Boylford,  or  in  public;  but  I  promise 
to  give  it  immediate  consideration,  and  I 
thank  you  for  setting  me  right  before  these 
good  people  here.  Some  of  them  have 
found  it  hard  to  account  for  what  seemed 
to  them  a  drop  from  a  college  presidency  to 
a  high  school,  but  I  want  to  say  that  I  have 
never  in  my  life  spent  a  happier  month  than 
this  in  Winchendon,  and  I  consider  any 
man  fortunate  who  wins  such  confidence 


204  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

and  co-operation  as  these  people  have 
given  me." 

He  spent  much  of  the  afternoon  with  Mr. 
Boylford,  and  promised  to  telegraph  him 
in  New  York,  the  next  day,  leaving  him  in 
little  doubt  as  to  his  decision.  His  evening 
hour  he  spent  as  usual  with  Alice.  She 
had  heard  of  the  event  of  the  morning,  and 
wanted  him  to  tell  her  everything  that  had 
happened  in  Boylford.  Omitting  all  refer- 
ence to  Cora,  he  did  so,  and  was  surprised 
to  find  how  warm  his  affection  was  for  the 
college  town. 

He  had  told  Dr.  Lyndon  his  life  there 
was  a  closed  book  and  he  believed  it.  With 
his  resolute  will  he  had  shut  out  all  thought 
of  it  from  his  mind.  But  now  that  he 
talked  of  the  laboratory  into  the  walls  of 
which  he  had  built  so  much  of  himself,  and 
of  his  classes,  toward  so  many  members  of 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  205 

which  his  interest  and  sympathy  had  grown 
into  affection,  he  realized  anew  how  much 
Boylford  had  been  to  him.  Even  Mr. 
Boy] ford  himself,  coarse  and  arbitrary  as 
he  was  in  some  ways,  had  meant  rightly. 
If  he  had  talked  with  Mr.  Boylford  before 
expelling  the  boy  there  would  have  been  no 
trouble.  So  when  the  hour  with  Alice  was 
over,  his  pent-up  affection  for  Boylford 
overflowed;  it  seemed  the  greatest  blessing 
of  his  life  that  he  could  go  back  there. 

He  hurried  to  Dr.  Lyndon's,  and  was 
more  than  gratified  to  find  her  on  the  bench 
under  the  tree,  and  alone. 

"  Of  course  you  accept  ? "  she  asked 
eagerly. 

"  That  depends  on  you." 

"  On  me?" 

"  Yes;  I  shall  go  if  I  can  take  you  with 
me;  not  otherwise." 


206  ON    A    PEDESTAL 

"  Mr.  Armstrong!  "  She  sprang  to  her 
feet;  in  the  dim  moonlight  he  could  see  her 
flush. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  easily;  surely  she  would 
not  call  him  shy  now;  "  I  have  learned 
something  about  love  since  I  came  away 
from  Boylford ;  I  have  seen  your  eyes  light 
up  when  I  came  upon  you  unexpectedly. 
And  0,  Elizabeth,  you  have  grown  to  be 
all  the  world  to  me." 

He  had  certainly  astonished  her;  not  be- 
fore had  he  breathed  a  hint  of  love.  Final- 
ly she  said,  "  This  is  an  odd  wooing." 

"  And  a  delightful  winning,"  he  replied 
confidently,  holding  out  his  arms. 

"  But  my  profession,"  she  urged,  hesitat- 
ingly. 

"  That  I  leave  entirely  to  you;  I  want 
you,  profession  or  no  profession."  Then 


ON    A    PEDESTAL  207 

his  arms  folded  about  her,  and  there  was 
no  resistance. 

They  planned  till  midnight.  As  he  bade 
her  adieu  he  remarked,  "  You  see  Boylford 
came  back  to  me  if  I  did  stay  on  my  pedestal . ' ' 

"  Perhaps  some  of  your  friends  arranged 
the  matter  for  you,"  she  suggested. 

"  0  no,"  he  said;  "  there  is  no  one  there 
who  would  take  that  interest  in  me. — Boyl- 
ford sent  for  me  because  it  needed  me,"  he 
added  complacently.  She  admired  him  the 
more  for  saying  it,  it  was  so  deliciously 
masculine. 

"  I  see  he  will  never  come  down  from 
it,"  she  said,  smiling,  after  he  bad  gone. 
"  I  must  try  to  be  a  skilful  curator  and 
bring  the  right  people  to  him." 

Just  how  he  came  to  be  summoned  back 
to  Boylford  he  did  not  learn  till  years  after, 
and  then  not  through  his  wife;  which 
shows  that  his  married  life  was  a  happy  one. 


Miss  DUSINBERRIE'S 
DOWNFALL 


MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S 
DOWNFALL 


I 

"  Miss  Dusinberrie,  you  and  I  will  not 
both  be  teachers  in  this  school  next  year." 

"  I  consider  that  very  probable,  Mr.  Law- 
rence; but  I  shall  be  here." 

War  was  declared,  and  Mr.  Lawrence 
proceeded  to  make  sure  of  his  allies  without 
delay.  He  found  the  president  of  the  board 
in  his  factory,  and  said,  "  Mr.  Orloff,  I 
have  told  Miss  Dusinberrie  I  shall  not  re- 
main in  this  school  next  year  if  she  does." 

"  Then  Miss  Dusinberrie  must  go.  Got 
anybody  in  mind  for  her  place  ?  " 

"No." 

(211) 


212     MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

"  Look  up  somebody  and  have  her  name 
ready  to  present  at  the  meeting  next 
month." 

"  I  should  Hke  to  explain ." 

"  I  don't  want  any  reasons.  There  is 
only  one  reason  for  hiring  or  discharging  a 
teacher,  and  that  is  that  the  principal  wants 
her  or  doesn't  want  her.  When  he  doesn't 
know  what  teachers  the  school  ought  to- 
have  we  will  get  another  principal." 

"  But  Miss  Dusinberrie  has  been  here  a 
long  while  and  will  stir  up  powerful  friends. " 

16  That  doesn't  matter.  The  board  runs 
the  school.  When  we  don't  run  it  to  suit 
the  people  they  can  elect  somebody  else." 

"  You  think  the  present  board  will  sus- 
tain this  action  ?  " 

"  Five  men  will  vote  for  it  unquestion- 
ingly.  Morse  and  Hardcastle  will  oppose 
it.  Lynch  and  Hall  are  doubtful;  you  had 


MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     213 

better    see    both    before  Miss  Dusinberrie 
does." 

II 

Mr.  Lawrence  went  first  to  Mr.  Hall,  a 
capitalist,  principally  occupied  in  looking 
after  his  real  estate.  He  found  him  busy 
with  some  mortgages.  "  Mr.  Hall,"  he 
said,  "  I  have  felt  obliged  to  say  to  Miss 
Dusinberrie  that  we  cannot  both  remain  in 
this  school  next  year." 

Mr.  Hall  had  not  seen  much  of  Mr.  Law- 
rence, and  what  he  had  seen  he  did  not 
like;  this  new  principal  was  too  aggressive, 
too  troublesome.  Mr.  Hall  was  a  conserva- 
tive; he  did  not  like  disturbance;  the  best 
school  like  the  best  stomach  was  one  you 
were  unconscious  of;  this  fellow  was  all  the 
time  stirring  things  up.  So  he  replied, 
"  And  you  are  canvassing  to  make  sure  you 
stay  ?  " 


214     MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

"  Not  at  all,"  returned  Mr.  Lawrence,, 
good  naturedly.  "  I  never  have  been  obliged 
to  ask  to  be  kept,  and  I  am  not  likely  to 
begin  here.  I  enjoy  my  work;  I  am  willing 
to  stay;  but  if  the  board  think  it  wiser  to 
keep  Miss  Dusinberrie  I  shall  go  cheerfully, 
and  am  not  likely  to  wait  long  for  another 
place.  I  chose  among  three  when  I  came 
here." 

"  Then  it  would  be  easier  for  you  to  get 
another  place  than  for  Miss  Dusinberrie." 

"  Unquestionably;  at  her  age  it  would  be 
practically  impossible  to  get  another  place 
if  she  were  dismissed  here." 

"  Then  manifestly  you  are  the  one  to  go." 

"  Yes;  if  the  people  are  taxed  for  schools 
in  order  to  provide  places  for  teachers." 

Mr.  Hall  looked  up  with  more  interest;, 
the  fellow  was  at  least  clear-headed  and 


MISS  DUSINBEKBIE'S  DOWNFALL     215 

fearless.  "  What  are  Miss  Dusinberrie's 
faults  ?"  he  asked. 

"  Her  worst  fault  is  the  absence  of  any 
excellence." 

"  0  fie;  that  reply  does  not  do  credit  to 
your  good  sense ;  evidently  it  is  prompted 
not  by  judgment,  but  by  dislike." 

"  On  the  contrary,  my  dislike  has  made 
me  distrust  my  judgment,  and  seek  in  vain 
to  find  excuses  for  her." 

"  Everybody  admits  that  she  is  a  schol- 
arly woman." 

"  Her  scholarship  is  the  merest  smatter- 
ing; it  is  the  veneer  of  the  cheaper  board- 
ing-school of  thirty  years  ago.  She  knows 
something  of  the  text-books  of  that  time, 
but  she  does  not  know  even  the  text-books 
of  to-day,  and  the  subjects  she  never  tried 
to  know." 

"It  is  curious  that  you   should  be  the 


216     MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

first  one  in  twenty  years  to  discover  this." 

"  Did  you  ever  talk  with  her  ?  " 

"  Heaven  forbid;  learned  women  are  not 
in  my  line." 

"  I  have;  I  am  amazed  that  a  woman  of 
her  environment  can  read  so  little,  and 
have  so  little  knowledge  of  current 
thought." 

"  All  the  other  principals  have  spoken  of 
her  in  the  highest  terms." 

"  Are  you  sure  you  have  had  any  other 
principals  ?  So  far  as  I  can  judge,  the 
recent  men  have  been  vice-preceptresses." 

Mr.  Hall  smiled  reminiscently.  "  There 
is  something  in  that,"  he  admitted.  "  How 
did  it  take  you  so  long  to  discover  her 
weakness  ?  " 

"  You  will  remember  that  before  my  first 
term  was  finished  the  schoolhouse  burned. 
For  the  following  year  we  were  in  confu- 


MISS  DUSINBEBKIE'S  DOWNFALL     217 

sion;  the  classes  were  scattered,  I  could  not 
keep  as  watchful  oversight  as  I  could  have 
wished,  and  much  of  what  I  did  see  I  made 
allowance  for.  But  I  knew  something  was 
wrong  in  our  upper  classes,  and  when  we 
got  into  the  new  building  I  set  myself  to 
discovering  what  it  was." 

"  '  It '  proving  to  be  Miss  Dusinberrie." 

"  Exactly.  I  wish  you  would  come  up 
and  hear  her  conduct  a  class  in  American 
history." 

"  You  have  seen  her;  tell  me  about  it 
instead." 

"  Why  if  there  is  anything  characteristic 
of  modern  teaching,  it  is  that  in  history  the 
text-book  is  only  a  syllabus  for  reading  and 
investigation.  In  the  course  of  the  year 
every  member  of  the  class  ought  to  have 
read  entirely  a  score  of  books  connected 
with  the  subject,  and  looked  over  a  hun- 


218     MISS  DUSINBEREIE'S  DOWNFALL 

dred  for  references.  Miss  Dusinberrie 
teaches  just  the  printed  page;  discovery  of 
San  Salvador,  eleven  lines;  battle  of  Get- 
tysburg one  and  one-third  pages.  She 
doses  out  history  as  a  physician  doses  out 
medicine,  and  the  pupils  like  it  about  as 
well.  It  is  physic,  not  food." 

"  Yet  her  pupils  appear  well  in  examina- 
tions." 

"  In  whose  examinations  ?  In  those  she 
prepares  herself  and  conducts  in  public. 
You  may  remember  that  at  the  first  board 
meeting  after  I  came  I  asked  why  you  did 
not  have  the  advanced  regents  examina- 
tions." 

"  Yes;  and  you  were  told  that  the  board 
did  not  think  it  wise  to  subject  the  pupils 
twice  a  year  to  the  nervous  strain  involved. 
I  think  we  were  right  about  it,  although  we 


MISS  DUSINBEEEIE'S  DOWNFALL     219 

did  vote  this  year  to  let  you  put  them  in 
again." 

"  The  nervous  strain  of  these  examina- 
tions does  not  come  so  much  upon  the  pu- 
pils as  upon  poor  teachers.  It  is  to  test 
teachers,  not  pupils,  that  examinations  are 
needed.  If  we  could  otherwise  be  sure  the 
teachers  were  all  right  we  could  dispense 
with  examinations.  Shall  I  tell  you  why 
you  gave  up  advanced  regents  examinations 
after  you  had  tried  them  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Because  Miss  Dusenberrie  could  not 
pass  five  per  cent  of  her  pupils." 

"  How  do  you  know  that  ?  " 

"  The  records  show  it.  The  first  ad- 
vanced examination  ever  given  was  in  June,. 
1878.  In  this  school  Miss  Dusinberrie  was 
the  teacher  of  an  algebra  class  of  24  pupils, 
all  of  whom  tried  the  examination.  Of  the 


220     MISS  DUSINBERKJE'S  DOWNFALL 

24  papers  five  were  sent  to  Albany,  and 
every  one  of  the  five  came  back  rejected." 

"  Where  are  the  records  of  that  ?  " 

"  Of  the  class  and  the  teacher,  in  the 
school  register.  Of  the  papers  sent  and 
rejected,  in  the  printed  regents  report  for 
1879." 

"  Then  it  was  because  Miss  Dusinberrie 
could  not  pass  her  pupils  that  so  much 
complaint  was  made  of  nervous  strain  ?  " 

"  Precisely." 

"  You  have  already  had  an  advanced  ex- 
amination this  year,  haven't  you  ?  " 

"  Yes;  in  January." 

"  How  did  Miss  Dusinberrie's  classes  get 
on  in  that  ?  " 

"  As  might  be  expected  from  what  I  have 
said.  In  history,  out  of  a  class  of  35  she 
wanted  to  send  six  papers  to  Albany,  but  I 
demonstrated  to  her  that  four  of  the  six 


MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     221 

could  not  possibly  be  marked  high  enough 
to  pass,  and  I  rather  think  the  other  two 
will  come  back,  the  only  hope  of  acceptance 
being  that  they  were  written  by  particularly 
bright  children,  who  expressed  themselves 
well." 

"  What  excuse  had  Miss  Dusinberrie  to 
offer?" 

"  She  complained  that  the  examinations 
were  too  long  and  unfair  and  expected  too 
much  of  the  children." 

"  What  did  you  tell  her?" 

"  That  her  methods  were  altogether 
wrong,  not  in  accord  with  modern  teaching; 
that  we  must  discard  the  dry  old  text-book 
she  knows  by  heart,  and  teach  history  as  a 
subject  that  is  alive." 

"  What  did  she  say  to  that  ?  "  ;  \ 

"  She  tried  to  petrify  me  with  a  stony 
glare.  When  I  insisted  on  an  answer,  she 


222     MISS  DUSISTBEKRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

denied  my  right  to  interfere  with  her  text- 
books or  her  methods.  Then  I  said  we 
should  not  both  be  here  next  year." 

"  You  make  a  strong  case.  But  suppose 
you  are  right;  that  it  would  be  better  for 
the  school  to  have  another  preceptress: 
have  you  reflected  what  it  means  to  attempt 
to  put  her  out  ?  " 

"  Mr.  Orloff  tells  me  I  can  depend  upon 
the  votes  of  a  majority  of  the  board." 

"  Yes,  that  is  true;  there  are  five  who 
hang  together  and  sneeze  when  Mr.  Orloff 
takes  snuff;  so  much  the  worse  for  them; 
it  is  just  as  much  a  ring  as  though  it  were 
a  corrupt  ring.  But  suppose  you  get  your 
votes  and  put  Miss  Dusinberrie  out,  you 
don't  suppose  the  matter  stops  there  ?  " 

"  I  presume  some  of  her  friends  would 
complain  among  themselves;  but  after  the 
new  teacher  was  established  and  the  com- 


MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     223 

munity  saw  how  much  better  results  we 
were  getting,  everything  would  be  smooth 
again.'' 

Mr.  Hall  smiled.  "  My  dear  fellow,"  he 
said,  "  I  would  give  a  great  deal  to  have  as 
little  knowledge  of  the  world  as  you  show. 
Let  me  tell  you  what  will  happen  if  you  carry 
this  thing  through.  You  will  divide  this 
village  into  two  factions  that  will  last  for 
months  and  probably  for  years.  Her  faction 
will  never  believe  that  you  can  be  right  in 
anything.  They  will  oppose  you  in  the 
school-board,  in  school,  in  the  community. 
They  will  refuse  to  trade  with  the  men  on 
the  board  who  voted  your  way.  The  griev- 
ance will  grow  with  time  instead  of  dimin- 
ishing; people  hug  the  grudge  long  after 
they  have  forgotten  the  cause.  In  the  end 
you  will  give  it  up  and  go  some  where  else, 
feeling  that  your  work  here  has  been  largely 


224     MISS  DUSIKBEEKIE'S  DOWNFALL 

a  failure  because  her  faction  would  never 
give  you  a  fair  chance." 

"  But  why  should  she  have  such  a  hold 
on  the  people  as  to  enlist  such  interest  in 
her  cause  ?  She  cannot  have  many  real 
friends." 

"  In  a  village  like  this  people  are  always 
seeking  a  cause  upon  which  to  divide.  We 
have  few  large  interests,  so  we  have  to  oc- 
cupy ourselves  with  petty  ones.  But  Miss 
Dusinberrie  has  friends;  she  is  looked  upon 
as  the  type  of  a  well  bred  woman." 

"  That  is  one  of  my  strongest  objections 
to  her.  She  has  imposed  upon  the  com- 
munity and  the  school  a  wholly  false  ideal 
of  what  a  lady  should  be.  The  real  lady  is 
simple,  sincere,  thoughtful  of  others;  Miss 
Dusinberrie  is  artificial,  pretentious,  thor- 
oughly selfish.  Our  school  girls  are  growing 


MISS  DUSIKBEREIE'S  DOWNFALL     225 

up  to  imitate  her,  and  they  could  not  have 
a  worse  model." 

"  But  this  village  has  accepted  her  type 
of  a  lady  for  twenty  years,  and  will  not  re- 
ject it  because  you  say  it  is  false.  The 
people  will  more  readily  believe  that  you 
are  no  gentleman  than  that  she  is  no  lady." 

"  The  more  necessity  that  her  type  of  a 
lady  be  no  longer  kept  on  a  pedestal  by  the 
school-board." 

"  Very  likely,  but  that  does  not  decrease 
our  present  difficulty.  To  dismiss  Miss 
Dusinberrie  is  to  invite  a  long  and  bitter 
controversy.  For  one  thing,  her  church 
will  take  it  up." 

"  Which  is  that?  I  don't  happen  to 
know  where  she  goes  to  church."" 

"  The  Methodist;  she  is  the  only  Metho- 
dist among  the  teachers.  And  by  the  way, 


226     MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

if  you  carry  the  change  through,  get  a 
Methodist  in  her  place  if  possible." 

"  Why,  what  has  her  church  to  do  with  a 
teacher  in  the  public  schools  ?  " 

"  A  great  deal;  not  directly,  of  course, 
but  indirectly.  In  a  village  like  this  almost 
all  the  social  interests  are  connected  with 
the  churches.  Teachers  are  sociably  desir- 
able members  of  the  community,  and  it  is 
only  fair  that  each  of  the  churches  should 
have  a  share  among  them.  On  the  other 
hand,  by  having  teachers  in  each  of  the 
churches  the  school  is  strengthened ;  all  the 
parents  and  all  the  taxpayers  are  reached 
through  some  representatives  of  the  school." 

"  Then  you  try  to  divide  up  the  teachers 
among  the  different  churches  ?  " 

"  So  far  as  we  can,  yes.  In  Miss  Dusin- 
berrie's  place,  for  instance,  if  there  were  a 
choice  between  two  teachers  of  nearly  equal 


MISS  DUSINBEKKIE'S  DOWNFALL     227 

desirability  otherwise,  I  should  vote  for  the 
one  that  was  a  Methodist." 

"  You  have  no  prejudice  against  any 
•church  ?  " 

"  Not  in  the  least;  the  board  is  not  a 
religious  organization,  and  the  schools  are 
supported  by  the  taxes  of  all  denomina- 
tions. For  instance,  we  have  always  had 
rather  more  than  a  proportionate  share  of 
Catholics,  not  because  we  were  seeking 
Catholics,  but  because  the  Catholic  girls 
who  have  worked  their  way  through  normal 
school  or  college  have  usually  done  so 
against  obstacles,  showing  natural  ability 
and  force  often  exceptional.  Some  of  them 
who  came  from  humble  homes  become  our 
choicest  women.  You  know  that,  Mr.  Law- 
rence; you  married  one." 

' '  Yes,  I  married  one.  Her  father  and 
mother  are  poor,  plain,  illiterate  people; 


228     MISS  DUSINBEKEIE'S  DOWNFALL 

but  they  are  physically  and  morally  sound, 
and  they  have  a  never-failing  sense  of  hu- 
mor that  carries  them  through  any  unfa- 
miliarity  with  conventionalities,  and  they 
are  welcome  guests  at  our  house  in  any 
company.  As  for  my  wife — Mr.  Hall,  I 
have  always  had  a  high  ideal  of  woman, 
but  every  day  since  I  have  been  married 
that  ideal  has  risen  as  I  have  seen  it  real- 
ized in  my  wife.  I  never  realized  before 
that  goodness  is  not  position  but  direction, 
not  where  we  are  to-day  but  whether  we 
are  farther  along  the  right  path  than  we 
were  yesterday.  She  is  a  constant  stimulus 
to  the  highest  effort;  humble,  always  look- 
ing to  the  heights  next  to  be  attained^ 
charitable,  loving  God  and  her  fellow-men, 
intellectually  keen,  my  companion  in  every 
thought,  a  helpmeet  no  man  was  ever 


MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     229 

worthy  of  but  whom  I  am  profoundly 
grateful  for." 

Mr.  Hall  looked  at  the  principal  long 
and  earnestly.  Then  he  said  slowly: 

"  I  like  to  hear  you  say  that.  I  never 

married  ".  He  paused  and  for  some 

time  looked  out  of  the  window  in  silence. 
To  Mr.  Lawrence  it  seemed  that  he  had 
been  upon  the  point  of  telling  something 
of  the  woman  he  had  hoped  to  marry,  and 
he-wondered  what  rival  had  taken  her  from 
him;  perhaps  the  Grim  Reaper.  But  what- 
ever Mr.  Hall  may  have  felt  the  impulse  to 
say,  he  repressed  any  self  revelation  and 
concluded:  "  but  I  can  appreciate  what  an 
inspiration  it  must  be  to  have  such  a  woman 
continually  at  one's  side. — Lawrence,"  he 
concluded,  returning  to  the  original  sub- 
ject, "  I  am  with  you  in  this  Dusinberrie 
matter.  It  is  going  to  be  a  long  and  hard 


230     MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

fight,  but  we  will  try  to  win  out.  I  have 
not  been  entirely  unaware  of  her  faults,, 
but  I  had  not  realized  they  were  so  harmful. 
We  will  have  another  preceptress,  and  when 
her  friends  fight  us  we  will  face  them.  By 
the  way,  Lawrence,  have  you  and  your  wife 
any  engagement  for  Sunday  evening  ?  I 
want  you  to  come  to  our  house  for  tea.  My 
sister  will  call  on  Mrs.  Lawrence  with  the 
formal  invitation,  but  keep  the  date  open;. 
I  feel  that  we  all  ought  to  be  better  ac- 
quainted." 

As  he  went  away  Mr.  Lawrence  felt 
elated.  For  himself  he  did  not  care  for 
place  in  society,  but  for  his  wife  he  wa& 
eager  the  world  should  know  her  as  he 
knew  her.  "  The  Mansion,"  as  Mr.  Hall'a 
fine  old  residence  was  called,  was  in  this- 
village  the  one  house  that  could  confer 
social  distinction.  It  opened  its  doors  to- 


MISS   DUSrSTBERRIE'S   DOWNFALL       231 

comparatively  few,  but  those  few  were  al- 
ways welcome. 

Ill 

Mr.  Lynch  was  a  pettifogger  and  justice 
of  the  peace.  When  Mr.  Lawrence  entered 
his  office  he  found  Miss  Dusinberrie  already 
there,  and  was  about  to  withdraw. 

"  Not  at  all,  not  at  all,"  said  Squire 
Lynch.  "  You  and  Miss  Dusinberrie  are 
both  here  on  the  same  business,  and  you 
may  as  well  transact  it  together.  You 
want  to  get  Miss  Dusinberrie  out  of  the 
school.  I  saw  you  coming  out  of  Mr. 
Hall's.  You  have  been  telling  him  why. 
Now  tell  me  why  before  Miss  Dusinberrie. 
Tell  me  just  what  you  told  Mr.  Hall." 

"  It  would  not  be  pleasant  for  Miss  Dusin- 
berrie to  hear  all  that  I  told  Mr.  Hall," 
replied  Mr.  Lawrence,  coldly. 

"  0  she'll   hear  it  all  right,"    returned 


232     MISS  PUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

Squire  Lynch,  maliciously;  "  these  things 
always  get  around,  and  it  is  more  manly  for 
you  to  say  it  before  her  face  then  behind 
her  back." 

"  [should  think  so,"  sniffed  Miss  Dusin- 
berrie. 

"  Very  well,  if  you  insist,  I  told  Mr.  Hall 
that  Miss  Dusinberrie's  scholarship  was 
superficial,  her  methods  were  out  of  date, 
and  her  example  as  a  woman  and  a  lady  not 
such  as  should  be  set  before  the  school." 

Miss  Dusinberrie  sprang  to  her  feet  and 
shook  her  fist  in  his  face.  "  You  a  judge 
of  a  lady,"  she  exclaimed;  "  you  who 
married  a  common  Irish  —  " 

"  0  Miss  Dusinberrie,  Miss  Dusinberrie, 
this  will  never  do,"  interrupted  Squire 
Lynch,  seizing  her  by  the  arm  and  forcing 
her  back  to  her  chair.  But  Mr.  Lawrence 
said  scornfully,  "  Fortunately  my  wife 


MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     233 

needs  no  defence;  Miss  Dusinberrie  is  only 
taking  pains  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of 
what  I  have  just  said." 

Miss  Dusinberrie  sprang  up  again,  but 
Squire  Lynch  insisted  that  she  should  re- 
main quiet.  "  We  will  consider  this  a 
court,"  he  said;  "  it  may  come  to  that 
before  we  get  through  with  it.  I  will  be 
the  judge,  Miss  Dusinberrie  shall  be  the 
defendant,  and  Mr.  Lawrence  is  the  witness 
for  the  prosecution.  I  will  cross-examine 
him.  Mr.  Lawrence,  you  say  Miss  Dusin- 
berrie's  scholarship  is  superficial;  what 
proof  have  you  of  that  ?  " 

"  The  proof  both  of  that  and  of  inade- 
quate methods  is  found  in  the  fact  that  her 
classes  cannot  pass  the  regents  examina- 
tions," 

"  What  have  you  to  say  to  that,  Miss 
Dusinberrie  ?  " 


234     MISS  DUSINBERKIE'S  DOWNFALL 

"  I  have  to  say  what  everybody  but  Mr. 
Lawrence  knows,  that  the  regents  examina- 
tions are  a  very  unfair  test.  They  are  ruin- 
ing the  schools.  Instead  of  working  for 
scholarship,  teachers  are  working  just  to 
get  their  pupils  through.  To  succeed  is 
not  proof  of  good  teaching;  it  only  shows 
a  low  aim." 

"  What  do  you  say  to  that,  Mr.  Law- 
rence ?  " 

"  That  the  question  is  too  large  to  be 
argued  here,  and  that  it  would  be  modest 
for  us  to  accept  the  decision  of  the  vast 
majority  of  the  teachers  and  school  officers 
of  the  state.  But  even  if  regents  examina- 
tions are  not  an  exact  test,  at  least  they 
afford  a  warning  when  of  Miss  Dusinberrie's 
class  of  thirty-five  in  American  history  not 
more  than  two  pass.  A  larger  proportion 


MISS  DUSINBEKKIE'S  DOWNFALL     235 

than  that  ought  to  pass  any  test,  no  matter 
how  unfair." 

"  How  many  passed  in  your  classes  ?  " 

"  All  the  papers  went  to  Albany,  in  all 
my  classes.  Possibly  two  may  come  back 
on  account  of  carelessness:  one  boy  omitted 
altogether  a  question  he  could  have  an- 
swered as  well  as  any  one  on  the  paper." 

"  Isn't  such  uniformity  of  passing  rather 
suspicious,  Mr.  Lawrence  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  broke  in  Miss  Dusinberrie, 
"  doesn't  it  look  as  if  he  corrected  the  papers 
himself  before  he  sent  them  to  Albany  ?  " 

Mr.  Lawrence  turned  on  her  quickly. 
"  Why  do  you  ask  that  question?"  he 
asked  her. 

"  He  is  hit,"  said  Mr.  Lynch  to  himself^ 
rubbing  his  hands. 

"  Because  I  have  my  reasons  for  thinking 


236     MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

that  is  just  what  you  did,"  she  replied,  ma- 
liciously. 

"  That  is  a  serious  charge  to  make,  and  I 
advise  you  to  have  your  proof  at  hand  be- 
fore you  repeat  it,"  he  said  warningly. 

"  Well,  Mr.  Lawrence,"  said  Squire 
Lynch,  "  the  matter  will  have  to  come 
before  the  board,  and  then  we  shall  see 
what  we  shall  see.  It  is  hardly  worth  while 
to  discuss  it  further  now." 

After  Mr.  Lawrence  was  gone,  Squire 
Lynch  said  to  Miss  Dusinberrie: 

"  I  believe  we  have  got  him  on  that  fixing 
up  the  papers." 

"  I  am  sure  of  it,"  she  replied,  compres- 
sing her  lips. 

"  Now,  Miss  Dusinberrie,  this  is  a  very 
important  matter  to  you;  it  means  six 
hundred  dollars  a  year  for  a  good  many 


MISS  DUSIKBBKRIE'S  DOWNFALL     237 

years;  you  ought  to  be  represented  before 
the  board  by  a  lawyer." 

"  0  Squire  Lynch,"  she  said,  smiling 
blandly  upon  him,  "  I  am  sure  there  is  no 
other  lawyer  to  whom  I  could  so  safely  in- 
trust my  case  as  to  you." 

"  But  you  see,  Miss  Dusinberrie,  I  am  a 
member  of  the  board,  and  if  I  acted  at  the 
same  time  as  your  attorney  I  could  not  bring 
in  a  bill  for  services.  Now  if  before  the 
board  meeting  you  should  happen  to  drop 
fifty  dollars  where  I  could  not  help  finding 
it " 

"  I    understand,"  replied    Miss    Dusin- 
berrie, knowingly.  "  I  will  draw  the  money 
from  the  bank  to-morrow." 
IV 

The  board  meetings  were  always  nominally 
open  to  the  public,  but  there  were  seldom 
any  spectators.  On  the  night  of  the  elec- 


238     MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

tion  of  teachers  for  the  ensuing  year,  how- 
ever, every  available  foot  of  space  was  oc- 
cupied, not  only  because  of  interest  in  Miss 
Dusinberrie's  fate,  but  because  Squire 
Lynch,  who  liked  an  audience,  had  scattered 
hints  that  there  would  be  "  something 
doing  ". 

After  the  routine  business  was  disposed 
of,  the  report  of  the  committee  on  teachers 
was  called  for.  The  chairman  read  the  list, 
remarking  that  there  were  no  changes  in 
salaries,  and  that  there  was  only  one  change 
in  the  names,  the  substitution  for  precep- 
tress of  a  Smith  graduate  with  three  years 
experience.  He  moved  the  adoption  of  the 
report,  which  was  seconded,  and  then 
Squire  Lynch  moved  to  amend  by  substitut- 
ing the  name  of  Miss  Dusinberrie  for  pre- 
ceptress. The  amendment  being  seconded 


MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     239 

and   before   the   house,  Squire  Lynch  rose 
impressively  to  speak. 

"  We  are  brought  face  to  face,"  he  said, 
"  with  a  most  singular  state  of  things. 
Miss  Dusinberrie  has  been  preceptress  of 
this  school  for  more  than  twenty  years. 
She  is  teaching  to-day  many  children  of 
those  she  taught  when  she  first  came  here. 
She  has  been  respected  and"  trusted  and 
honored.  Principal  after  principal  has  ex- 
pressed his  appreciation  of  her.  It  re- 
mained for  this  young  man,"  and  he  pointed 
scornfully  at  Mr.  Lawrence,  "  to  discover 
that  she  was  unworthy  to  occupy  the  place 
she  had  filled  so  long  with  distinction;  for 
this  young  fellow,  himself  a  stranger  here, 
not  yet  two  years  principal  of  the  school. 
Before  he  is  fairly  introduced  himself  he 
seeks  to  introduce  another  new  teacher, 


240     MISS  DUSIKBEERIE'S  DOWNFALL 

another  young  person  recently  out  of  col- 
lege. 

66  What  reasons  does  he  give  for  desiring 
this  change  ?  What  charges  does  he  make 
so  serious  that  he  forces  an  issue  and  says 
to  the  board  of  education,  '  Discharge  her, 
or  you  lose  ME  '  ? 

"  Why,  Mr.  President,  aside  from  the 
fact  that  he  thinks  she  is  no  lady — and  I  am 
reminded  of  the  two  men  quarrelling,  one 
of  whom  shouts,  '  You  are  no  gentleman,' 
and  the  other  inquires,  '  Do  you  think  your- 
self a  gentleman?'  '  Of  course  I  do;' 
'  Then  I  am  glad  you  don't  think  me  one  ' 
— aside,  I  say,  from  this  opinion  of  Mr. 
Lawrence,  which  is  no  better  than  the  opin- 
ion of  any  lady  or  gentleman  'here,  and 
which  is  at  variance  with  the  opinion  of 
every  other  lady  and  gentleman  here, — 
aside,  I  say,  from  this  opinion  he  has  just 


MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     241 

one  charge  to  make  against  her,  that  she 
didn't  get  all  her  scholars  through  the  re- 
gents examinations;  and  to  show  what  an 
awful  charge  that  is,  he  testifies  that  he  got 
every  one  of  his  scholars  through. 

"  Now,  Mr.  President,  I  have  had  consid- 
erable experience  in  the  police  court,  and  I 
have  learned  one  thing,  that  where  a  dozen 
witnesses  testify  exactly  the  same  in  regard 
to  a  matter  they  are  all  lying;  they  have 
been  coached,  and  are  repeating  not  what 
they  remember  seeing  but  what  they  re- 
member being  told  to  saj/.  So  when  some 
of  Miss  Dusinberrie's  scholars  pass  and 
some  don't  pass,  that  is  natural  enough; 
but  when  every  one  of  Mr.  Lawrence's 
scholars  passes  there  is  something  wrong. 
I  can  tell  you  what  that  something  wrong 
is:  Mr.  Lawrence  doctored  his  examination 
papers  before  he  sent  them  to  Albany." 


242     MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

Squire  Lynch  was  watching  his  audience, 
he  saw  that  he  had  made  a  great  sensation, 
and  he  stopped  right  there,  looking  trium- 
phantly at  Miss  Dusinberrie,  who  smiled 
sympathetically  back. 

"  This  is  a  serious  charge  to  make,"  said 
Mr.  Orloff.  "  What  proof  have  you  ?  " 

"  Internal  proof,"  replied  Squire  Lynch. 
"  If  he  had  been  satisfied  to  have  half  pass, 
or  even  three-quarters,  people  might  have 
believed  it  was  done  honestly;  but  that 
every  one  should  pass  is  absurd." 

"What  have  you  to  say?"  asked  Mr. 
Or!  off  of  Mr.  Lawrence. 

"  That  the  regents  examinations  are 
meant  to  be  a  test  of  the  proficiency  fairly 
to  be  expected,  and  that  every  scholar 
should  pass  who  has  been  properly  classed 
and  properly  instructed.  As  to  this  par- 


MISS  DUSINBEERIE'S  DOWNFALL     243 

ticular  instance  I  should  like  to  offer  a  little 
testimony. '' 

The  president  nodded,  and  Miss  Benham, 
the  second  assistant,  testified  that  she  had 
herself  gathered  the  papers  in  all  of  Mr. 
Lawrence's  classes  that  were  examined; 
that  she  had  sat  at  the  table  with  him  and 
helped  him  look  them  over;  that  the  papers 
had  not  been  out  of  her  sight  from  the 
time  they  were  gathered  till  Mr.  Lawrence 
had  locked  them  up  in  the  iron  box  and 
given  it  to  the  janitor  to  be  sent  to  the  re- 
gents ;  and  that  no  mark  of  any  kind  had 
been  made  upon  any  one  of  the  papers. 
That  seemed  conclusive,  and  the  matter 
would  have  ended  there,  had  not  Miss 
Dusinberrie  sniffed  contemptuously :  "  That 
girl  would  swear  to  anything."  Mr.  Law- 
rence's eyes  showed  the  danger  signal,  and 


244     MISS  DUSIKBERBIE'S  DOWNFALL 

he  asked  permission  to  make  some  inquiries 
of  Miss  Dusinberrie. 

"  Miss  Dusinberrie,"  he  began,  "  do 
you  remember  that  on  the  day  of  the  Ameri- 
can history  examination  Lucy  Neal  waa 
taken  ill  and  asked  to  be  excused  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  You  directed  her  to  write  a  note  to  me 
asking  permission  to  go  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  She  wrote  this  note  at  her  desk  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  I  returned  it  to  you  asking  you  to  en- 
dorse your  approval  upon  it  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  You  wrote  this  endorsement  at  your 
desk." 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  Is  that  the  note  with  your  endorsement 
upon  it?  " 


MISS  DUSIXBEBRIE'S  DOWNFALL     245 

Miss  Dusinberrie  looked  at  the  note  Mr. 
Lawrence  handed  her,  and  replied,  "  Yes, 
sir." 

"  I  will  ask  you  gentlemen  to  examine 
that  note,"  said  Mr.  Lawrence,  handing  it 
to  Mr.  Orloff.  "  The  body  of  the  note  is 
in  the  usual  school  ink,  which  has  turned 
a  bluish  black.  Miss  Dusinberrie's  en- 
dorsement is  in  an  ink  that  has  turned  to  a 
brownish  black  plainly  distinguishable. 
The  reason  is  that  the  night  before  this 
note  was  written  and  endorsed  I  changed 
the  ink  in  the  bottle  on  Miss  Dusinberrie's 
desk.  In  looking  over  her  history  papers 
I  became  convinced  that  she  had  altered 
some  of  the  spellings.  This  ink  shows  that 
the  next  day  she  did  alter  some  of  the  alge- 
bra papers.  I.  have  here  four  papers  so  al- 
tered, the  brownish  black  ink  being  plainly 


246     MISS  DUSINBEBRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

distinguishable.  Moreover,  two  of  the  cor- 
rections are  in  themselves  errors." 

When  the  papers  were  first  produced  Miss 
Dusinberrie  had  tried  to  snatcli  them. 
Failing  in  that,  she  had  protested  indig- 
nantly that  it  was  a  mean  trick  to  play  upon 
a  lady;  that  no  gentleman  would  do  it. 
Even  Squire  Lynch  saw  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  defend  her  further,  the  motion  to 
amend  was  lost,  and  the  original  list  of 
teachers  *  recommended  by  the  committee 
was  elected. 

Miss  Dusinberrie  hurried  out  of  the 
room,  but  loitered  upon  a  corner  till  Squire 
Lynch  passed.  She  joined  him  and  asked: 
"  Don't  I  get  any  of  that  fifty  back  ?  " 

"  Not  a  dollar,"  he  replied  indignantly; 
"  what  can  a  client  expect  who  doesn't 
trust  her  lawyer  ?  You  could  be  impris- 
oned for  what  you  concealed  from  me." 


MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     247 

u  You  think  I  am  beaten,"  she  said,  "  so 
you  go  over  to  the  other  side.  I  tell  you 
I  am  going  to  win  out.  There  will  be 
three  men  elected  in  August  who  will  vote 
for  me.  I  know  the  ropes  and  I  am  going 
to  work  them." 

She  explained  her  plans  at  some  length, 
to  Squire  Lynch's  admiration.  "  By  Jove, 
I  believe  she'll  do  it,"  he  said;  and  he  re- 
mained her  ally,  with  an  additional  retainer. 
V 

Isabella  Hall  was  much  older  than  her 
brother;  indeed  the  family  record  showed 
that  she  was  close  to  the  three  score  and  ten 
that  seem  more  than  normal.  But  few 
would  have  guessed  it.  Her  cheeks  were 
plump,  her  complexion  was  rosy,  her  figure 
was  erect,  her  look  was  alert,  and  her  eyes- 
were  quick  to  twinkle.  Indeed  in  many 
ways  she  was  unaffectedly  girlish.  "  Belle, 


248     MISS  DUSI^BERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

you  will  never  be  really  grown  up,"  her 
brother  used  to  say  to  her  fondly,  when  she 
had  done  something  that  seemed  to  him 
especially  unsophisticated.  She  was  a  sensi- 
ble business  woman,  a  good  neighbor,  ready 
to  give  herself  as  well  as  her  money  when 
needed ;  more  than  once  she  had  been  sole 
nurse  when  the  need  was  urgent  and  profes- 
sional services  were  not  to  be  had.  Yet  she 
was  dainty  to  her  finger-tips;  she  could 
tolerate  no  coarseness  in  her  companions. 

This  was  largely  why  she  had  never  mar- 
ried. Wealthy,  accomplished,  an  unusual 
beauty,  she  had  attracted  many  suitors,  but 
each  in  his  turn  had  somehow  offended  her, 
and  finally  she  had  resigned  herself  to 
single-blessedness.  She  travelled  a  great 
deal;  she  had  spent  the  preceding  year  with 
her  brother  in  Mediterranean  countries. 
But  at  home  she  had  little  companionship. 


MISS  DUSOTBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     249 

She  was  associated  with  other  ladies  of  the 
place  in  benevolent  and  other  enterprises, 
and  always  met  them  cordially,  but  she 
found  none  she  wanted  to  be  intimate  with. 
When  her  brother  asked  her  to  call  upon 
Mrs.  Lawrence  she  did  it  cheerfully  enough, 
without  expectation  beyond  fulfilment  of 
a  duty.  But  the  moment  she  looked  into 
Mrs.  Lawrence's  honest  gray  eyes,  full  of 
spirit  and  fun,  she  felt  unusual  attraction, 
and  as  she  talked  with  her  and  saw  how 
simple  and  straightforward  she  was,  how 
quick  of  apprehension,  how  sympathetic, 
how  original  in  her  directness,  and  how  ob- 
servant of  little  characteristics,  so  that  her 
narration  was  almost  personation,  Miss  Hall 
felt  that  here  was  indeed  a  rare  creature, 
and  hoped  she  might  win  her  for  a  friend. 
As  she  rose  to  go  she  said  as  much,  and 
Mrs.  Lawrence,  who  had  revelled  in  the 


250     MISS  DUSINBEKKIE'S  DOWNFALL 

atmosphere  of  refinement  and  culture, 
looking  into  the  old  lady's  wistful  eyes  and 
divining  there  was  hunger  there,  impulsive- 
ly threw  her  arms  about  Miss  Hall's  neck, 
exclaiming,  "  I  will  love  you  dearly  if  you 
will  let  me." 

She  had  stumbled  upon  the  straight  path 
to  Miss  Hall's  heart,  and  thereafter  the  two 
women  were  the  closest  friends.  No  day 
passed  that  one  was  not  at  the  house  of 
the  other,  and  as  the  men  also  became  warm- 
ly intimate,  almost  every  day  some  meal  was 
taken  by  the  four  in  common,  nearly  as 
often  in  the  modest  cottage  of  the  Law- 
rences as  in  the  proud  mansion  of  the  Halls; 
and  perhaps  with  quite  equal  pleasure,  for 
Theresa's  simple  dishes  were  capitally 
cooked. 

VI 

On  the  day  before  the  school  election 
Mrs.  Lawrence  was  having  an  afternoon 


MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     251 

cup  of  tea  at  the  Halls.  "  How  do  you 
think  the  vote  will  be  to-morrow  ?  "  she 
asked. 

"  We  are  hopelessly  beaten,"  said  Miss 
Hall.  "  Howard  refuses  even  to  be  here 
during  election;  he  thinks  it  would  be  un- 
dignified to  appear  where  his  presence 
might  influence  a  vote  in  his  favor." 

"  Walter  is  just  the  same,"  said  Mrs.. 
Lawrence;  "  he  is  going  to  be  away  too.  I 
told  him  that  when  he  knew  your  brother 
came  up  for  re-election  he  certainly  ought 
to  take  off  his  coat  and  work  for  him,  but 
he  said  Mr.  Hall  and  he  must  both  stand 
upon  their  records.  I  told  him  that  was 
first-rate  pride,  but  mighty  poor  politics." 

"  I  wish  we  women  had  a  hand  in  poli- 
tics, Theresa,"  said  Miss  Hall. 

"  Suppose  we  do  have,"  suggested 
Theresa. 


252     MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

"  How  ?  "  asked  Miss  Hall,  mystified. 

Theresa  took  from  her  pocket  a  small 
memorandum-book.  "  That  book  contains 
an  alphabetical  list  of  every  voter  qualified 
to  cast  a  ballot  at  the  election  to-morrow," 
she  said. 

Miss  Hall  could  hardly  credit  her  eyes. 
"  How  did  you  get  it  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  I  made  it.  You  know  I  took  the  school 
census." 

"  Yes;  I  wondered  why  you  wanted  to 
do  that." 

"  I  had  several  reasons.  For  one  I 
needed  the  money;  we  have  lots  of  use  of 
that  in  our  early  house-keeping." 

"  Of  course." 

"  Then  I  wanted  to  see  the  people  in 
their  homes  and  get  acquainted  with  them; 
there  was  just  an  element  of  settlement 
work  about  it." 


MISS  DUSINBERKIE'S  DOWNFALL     253 

"  I  can  understand  that." 

"  Then  I  didn't  want  your  brother  to  lose 
by  standing  up  for  my  husband;  so  I  have 
made  pretty  sure  of  his  re-election." 

"Theresa  Lawrence!  What  do  you 
mean  ?  " 

"  Why,  while  I  was  asking  questions  it 
seemed  sociable  to  have  a  little  chat,  and  I 
took  care  that  the  women  of  the  district 
knew  just  how  matters  stood." 

"  Suppose  they  were  on  Miss  Dusinber- 
rie's  side  ?  " 

"  Not  many  of  them  were.  The  few  that  I 
found  prejudiced  I  let  alone.  Bat  enough 
have  promised  to  vote  our  ticket  to-morrow 
to  win  the  day." 

"  You  little  mischief-maker,"  cried  Miss 
Hall,  embracing  her  admiringly,  "  you  are 
a  wonder.  But  are  you  sure  they  will  turn 
out  ?  " 


254       MISS   miSINBERKIE'S   DOWNFALL 

"  That  is  just  where  I  want  you  to  help 
me.  I  shall  stand  at  the  polls  all  day  to  see 
that  none  vote  who  are  unqualified,  and  to 
check  off  the  names  of  those  who  have 
promised  to  vote  our  way.  Now  in  the 
afternoon  if" — and  she  held  the  old  lady  at 
arms  length  and  looked  at  her  roguishly, 
"  if  a  certain  aristocratic  but  warm-hearted 
person  whom  I  know  would  get  out  her  car- 
riage and  ride  around  to  the  addresses  I 
would  give  her  for  the  faithless,  and  bring 
them  to  the  polls —  " 

"  Theresa,  you  are  a  darling,"  cried  the 
old  lady    enthusiastically;    "  I   was  afraid 
you  were  going  to  leave  me  out." 
VII 

Mr.  Hall  and  Mr.  Lawrence  had  not  gone 
away  together,  but  they  had  met  in  Win- 
chendon  and  had  come  home  in  the  same 
train,  arriving  just  in  time  to  vote.  They 


MISS  DUSDOEKKIE'S  DOWNFALL     255 

had  agreed  that  the  election  was  lost.  Miss 
Dusinberrie  had  canvassed  the  village  as 
The  Woman  with  a  Grievance,  and,  as  Mr. 
Hall  had  predicted,  she  had  found  a  lot  of 
idle  minds  glad  of  some  new  controversy. 
Her  church  had  taken  the  matter  up,  with 
the  more  spirit  because  the  Smith  graduate 
was  a  Unitarian;  and  by  personal  solicita- 
tion Miss  Dusinberrie  had  pledged  so  many 
voters  that  the  result  seemed  assured. 

Mr.  Lawrence  had  even  discussed  a  course 
of  action;  he  did  not  care  to  stay  with  the 
balance  of  power  on  the  board  elected  to 
oppose  him,  and  Mr.  Hall  had  proposed  to 
him  to  give  up  teaching  and  act  as  agent  for 
some  of  his  property.  This  Mr.  Lawrence 
was  reluctant  to  do,  for  he  loved  teaching; 
but  he  thought  he  might  be  compelled  to 
accept. 

As  they  walked  up  the  hill  to  the  school- 


256     MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

house  they  saw  an  unusual  crowd  about  the 
polls,  and  when  they  made  their  way  through 
were  astonished  to  find  Mrs.  Lawrence  stand- 
ing behind  the  inspectors,  note-book  in 
hand,  evidently  treated  with  deference  as  a 
personage  of  importance.  Mr.  Lawrence 
trusted  his  wife  too  fully  to  criticize,  but 
he  wondered. 

"  Why,  Tessie,  what  is  all  this?"  he 
asked. 

"  Victory,  that's  all,"  replied  his  wife 
exultantly;  "  the  day  is  ours.  Look," 
she  cried  merrily. 

Both  gentlemen  turned  and  saw  Isabella 
Hall  drive  up,  sitting  erect  on  the  front 
seat  of  her  most  stately  equipage,  out  of 
which  got  three  women  apparently  fresh 
from  the  wash-tub  and  came  forward  to 
vote.  The  inspectors  turned  to  Theresa, 
who  found  their  names  in  her  book  and 


MISS  DUSIKBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     257 

explained  why  the  wOmen  were  eligible. 
They  cast  their  votes,  returned  to  the  carriage 
and  were  driven  away,  Theresa  having  in 
the  mean  time  given  Miss  Hall  another  list 
of  names. 

Just  then  Miss  Dusinberrie  came  up, 
heading  a  lot  of  puffing  matrons. 

"  We'll  take  a  little  share  in  this  woman 
voting  ourselves,"  she  said  angrily,  offering 
her  vote. 

The  inspectors  looked  inquiringly  at 
Theresa,  who  shook  her  head  and  said, 
"  Not  qualified." 

"  Not  qualified,  when  those  washerwomen 
can  vote  ?  " 

"  Those  washerwomen,  as  you  call 
them,"  replied  Theresa,  "  have  children  of 
school  age  residing  with  them." 

"  Miss  Coit  voted,  and  she  hasn't  any 
children." 


258     MISS  DUSINBERRIE'S  DOWNFALL 

"  No,  but  she  is -assessed  upon  the  last 
roll  for  more  than  fifty  dollars." 

"  Fifty  dollars!  I  have  five  thousand 
dollars  in  bonds  and  in  the  bank." 

"  That  will  interest  this  year's  assessors 
but  it  does  not  count  here;  the  amount 
must  be  assessed  upon  last  year's  tax-list." 

Miss  Dusinberrie's  indignation  was  so 
overwhelming  that  it  made  her  speechless; 
for  a  moment  she  looked  as  if  she  would 
like  to  tear  Theresa  limb  from  limb,  but 
she  thought  better  of  it  and  went  off  mut- 
tering, the  women  she  had  brought  follow- 
ing her  without  an  attempt  to  vote. 

Miss  Hall  brought  up  two  more  women 
just  before  the  polls  closed,  and  Theresa 
ran  over  her  list.  "  We  have  certainly  26 
majority,"  she  said,  "  and  I  think  we  shall 
have  more.  A  good  many  who  expected  to 
vote  the^other  ticket  have  probably  secretly 


MISS  DUSI^BERRIE'S  DOWNFALL     259 

'Come  over  to  us  when  they  found  how  things 
were  going." 

She  was  right;  Mr.  Hall's  ticket  was 
elected  by  a  majority  of  82,  so  decisive  that 
there  was  no  thought  of  further  contest. 
Miss  Dusinberrie  decided  to  move  out  of 
town,  partly  because  she  was  afraid  of  being 
taxed  on  the  five  thousand  dollars,  and 
partly  because  the  fact  she  had  saved  so 
much  did  not  correspond  with  some  state- 
ments she  had  made  during  the  canvass. 
"  I  beat  the  men  to  a  stand-still  "  she  said 
to  Squire  Lynch,  viciously,  "  and  it  was 
hard  luck  to  be  vanquished  at  the  last  by 
that  little  Irish  vixen." 

Squire  Lynch  was  not  sympathetic;  he 
had  gone  over  to  the  winning  side.     "  She 
beat  you  at  your  own  game,"  he  said,  "  and 
she  played  it  square."    X\TV  &  R  A      ^^y 
{  UNIVERSITY  I 


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JUM    0  1948 


LD  21-100?n-7,'39(402s) 


Bard eon 
The  woman 


.  139809 
trustee 


